The Last Night
by Hinata FTW
Summary: A NaruHina Songfic series! Hinata's feeling really down a few weeks after Pain's assault; Naruto hasnt acknowledged her confession yet and her family is really getting to her. What will happen when she finally decides to go see Naruto, one last time?
1. Chapter 1: The Last Night

Chapter 1: The Last Night

A NaruHina Songfic

Hey there, this wasn't originally planned to be my first fanfic, I'm in the midst of writing the draft for a really long one, but while doing this I heard this song and thought how much it suited, or could suit if you look at the NaruHina relationship in a different way. Anyway, I was still planning to wait with this, but then Japan got hit hard, its really terrible, so I thought I would complete it quick and put it up as a tribute for them. Hopefully it can bring a little happiness? There can always be hope, even when everything seems desolate…

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. If I did I would be making NaruHina a reality NOW for the people of Japan (hint hint Masashi, NaruHina is the most popular pairing at the moment (I think? At least I'm pretty sure) so you should do it to cheer up the Japanese). I also don't own the song 'The Last Night' by Skillet or I would be pimping chicks and looking for a girl like Hinata (I'm a guy btw) or whatever rock stars do, even not that famous ones… anyway, enjoy the story, its not _all_ doom and gloom, and no, I don't see Hinata as emo.

For the song parts, the normal writing is the guy singing and the italics is the girl singing, you can look at it as Naruto and Hinata if you want.

.

Hinata knelt in the secluded gardens of the partially rebuilt Hyuuga estate, clutching her bleeding wrist, shivering uncontrollably. A dejected kunai lay on the grass by her knee, her blood splashed along its length. She looked at the gaping red wound in her wrist. The blood from her artery pumped out, soaking her other hand that was desperately squeezing her wrist, then running down to soak into her trousers before finally blossoming out onto the grass.

For several blessed moments, she forgot everything, her only thought the pain emitting from her spasming wrist. Before long though, she felt a niggling sensation slowly grow in her forehead, underneath her blue black fringe. It slowly grew into a bloom of pain that quickly set its sights on rivaling that from her wrist. They were calling her.

It all came back in shocking finality. Her confession to Naruto on the battlefield that had once been her beloved village, her fight to near death against the corpse-like man named 'Pain', which caused Naruto to lose control of the demon residing within him.

Then, after that, Naruto's avoidance of her for the few weeks that had passed. It felt like a stab through her heart. To add insult to injury, her father, when he returned home from his mission with her younger sister, had quickly found out what she did. In his anger, he had come to a final, terrifying decision. The curse mark of the Hyuuga clan, the Caged Bird Seal, had been branded into her forehead, etched there for the rest of her life. She was a new Branch Member, at the will of the Main Family. A slave.

She gently touched her shaking fingers to the rough seal, her final degradation, and yet, the beginning of a whole new ordeal. But the physical pain she was in now, it was nothing compared to that in her heart.

"Naruto-kun, he doesn't even want to be near me now" she whispered into the unresponsive garden. '_All my life had been leading up to that moment, when I finally laid myself open for him, when I finally confessed to him. And he ignores me. He doesn't even acknowledge what I told him_.' Her despairing thoughts echoed around her head.

'_I should just end it now_' she thought bitterly.

The kunai was snatched from the ground, her shaking fingers digging furrows in the sea of green blades, pulling it away from the clutching hold of the grass. The grass, without a care in the world, didn't seem to want to let go of it, didn't seem to want it to cut into her soft flesh any more. It was almost like it was trying to keep the blade away from her self hurting fingers. The kunai slowly rose in a shaking fist, pointing towards her bared throat, just above where her hitai-ate hung.

'_Choke to death on my own blood?_' she thought absently. She then lowered it, to press it quivering over her heart. She dimly felt the small prick as it pierced her jacket.

'_Quick and painless?_' she again questioned herself, uncaring. '_My heart has given me nothing but pain so far._'

She went to thrust the rough blade the rest of the way through, but despite her resolve, she knew she _did_ care. At least about one thing; and she knew she couldn't do it until she got a solid answer. Not before knowing, for sure, what _he_ thought.

She threw the kunai into the ground amidst the pretty red roses surrounding her, her bright maroon blood that soaked the blade made it blend in, just another rose that burned out to quickly. She took her eyes off it, reaching into her hip pouch, procuring a small roll of bandages. With this, she quickly wrapped up her wrist, stemming the flow of liquid life, and fled the Hyuuga grounds.

She was careful not to let anyone spot her, Main or Branch family alike. No-one did, just as no-one witnessed her valiant struggle through the forest. As she grew more distant from the estate, the curse seal flared, working to bring her back to her masters. The pain grew with every step she took, eventually bringing her to her knees. Tears welled in her eyes, falling like tiny crystals to the forest floor. Those little sparkles of beauty that were only ever seen in the midst of terrible suffering, these too nobody saw. Not even their owner, whose eyes were squeezed shut against the pain.

Still, she crawled forward. While the pain intensified, she could feel it growing more distant, until finally, after over an hour of crawling hopelessly, covering no more than a hundred meters, she gained the outer barrier of the seal. She broke free of the pain with a small cry of joy and achievement. Relieved, she set off on her final mission, to see the one she loved.

.

Naruto flopped onto the grass, exhausted from a day's hard training. His teammate Sakura had left hours ago, while he had opted to stay, pushing himself until he collapsed, trying to sort out the torrent of emotions flooding his mind. As they had for the past few weeks!

He couldn't stop thinking about one very beautiful girl, ever since he had first started to notice her as who she really was, just those few weeks ago. And no, she didn't have pink hair. No. She had long, dark, graceful hair that glided down to her lower back, that; he remembered, in the heat of battle got all tousled up and fell over her shoulders in a tangled heap. _This _girl had strangely beautiful, light lavender eyes, that; while being devoid of a pupil, showed more emotion than anyone he had ever seen.

He remembered; when he started to fully notice her, just a few weeks ago, that love and pain dominated these emotions. He remembered, as he had so often during these past few weeks, her eyes brimming with tears in her valiant struggle to cross the gap between them, before the end came. _This_ thought dominated his mind, as it had for weeks. He couldn't get her out of his head.

'_Hinata Hyuuga_'.

Her name plagued his mind, hiding in every nook and cranny, flowing gently through his spirit. But, when ever he saw the object of such passion, he choked up and ran away before he said anything stupid. He just didn't know what to say to her, and it hurt _him_ to see the hurt in _her_ eyes when she witnessed his avoidance. He knew he was killing her inside, and by doing that, killing himself.

"Arggg! Why am I not doing something!" he shouted to the empty field, berating his idiocy. She had done the nicest thing anybody in his entire life had done for him, she had, unconditionally, loved him.

She had been willing to put her life on the road before him. She stood there as a barrier he couldn't cross, halting his path to death. For that love. His thoughts again turned to self loathing. '_A love I've never returned_' he thought bitterly.

He heard soft footfalls approaching him, and slowly sat up. No doubt it was one of his teammates, come to force him home. He did have a mission tomorrow and no doubt they wanted him to be well rested for it.

He looked up, to see the girl walking through his mind walking towards him in reality. Her head was down, and just by looking at her, he saw she was in a downcast mood.

This made him hesitate a second, before his inner idiot took over and he started panicking. He looked for a place to hide, but there was nowhere out on the immense sea of green that was the field he had been practicing in. He shot up to run away, like the coward he thought he was, but was halted by her softly lilting voice.

"Naruto, please don't run."

Only her voice was different to every other precious moment he had had the privilege to hear it. It was strange of her to leave out the ever present honorific 'kun', which hinted to him about her overall attitude at the moment, but what really gave him pause was the tone of her voice.

While still soft, hesitant, and lacking self confidence, there was missing from it the wealth of emotion that normally weaved its way through her speech. This time, it was different, it was just, uncaring.

"Hinata?" he asked. Her plea and change of attitude had rooted him to the spot as she closed the distance between them.

Then he noticed her bandaged wrist, blood still wet and seeping slowly through the pure white cloth, a symbol of her innocent spirit that was being corrupted by the pain others brought to her. She stared at her feet. She hadn't even glanced up since she'd entered the clearing, having not dared to look into his cerulean blue gaze.

Before he had a chance to ask it, she answered his question of obvious worry. "Tonight will be the last night" she whispered gently, and looked him full in the face.

"I just came to say goodbye". Her voice carried clearly across the small distance between them, the only noise in the whole field, as she stared straight into his eyes.

.

"You come to me with scars on your wrist

You tell me this will be the last night feeling like this.

_I just came to say goodbye_

_I didn't want you to see me cry, I'm fine._

But I know it's a lie."

.

"Hinata, what's wrong?" Naruto's voice drifted through the clearing, full with the somber tones of dreadful worry. There was something seriously up with her.

"I'm fine" she murmured simply, looked at him one last time, an unspoken, desperate plea in her eyes. When she saw he made no move, she turned to leave, resigned to go back to her fate. As she spun around, her fringe flicked up a little in the small breeze. In that moment Naruto caught a glimpse of what he had never wanted to see again, ever since Neji had shown it to him so many years ago.

'_What is __that__ doing on Hinata!_' he mentally screamed, inner terror getting the best of him.

"Hinata!" he shouted, having not been able to come up with anything more useful. He caught her arm before she could get too far.

She turned to him with that desperate look infecting her face. He slowly, carefully lifted her silky fringe with the back of his hand, and gasped involuntarily.

There, etched into her perfect porcelain skin, a mar to a perfect sculpture of beauty, was the mark of a slave. The Caged Bird Seal. On Hinata's forehead.

"This, this cant be" Naruto stuttered in shock. "W, Why?" was all he managed to choke out after that.

"Its nothing" Hinata said simply, but he couldn't miss the dejection in her voice, no matter how dense people thought Naruto was. She again tried to leave, but Naruto's grip didn't slacken.

"That's a lie" he said softly, blatantly bringing it into the light. "Why would they do this?" he asked, full of dread.

Hinata resigned herself to explain. "I,I didn't want you to see me like this Naruto. I'm sorry, I was too weak to stay away. I had to see you one last time. They sealed me because of my actions with Pain. I caused you to r,release what resides within you, and by doing that, I put the whole village in danger. I shamed the Hyuuga clan with my actions. It was unforgiveable."

For the third time, she tried to leave; she just couldn't stand the pitying look in his eyes.

'_Don't pity me, Naruto-kun. Love me._' she thought in desperation. She was again stopped.

"Hinata, what happened to your wrist?" he whispered.

"N, Nothing" her words stumbled under the intensity of his gaze, and the lie came out blatantly obvious.

Naruto looked into her eyes, and he knew. She had done it to herself.

_Why _had he avoided her all these past weeks? _Why _had he not spoken to her, _why_ had he left her alone, even after all she had done for him? He could have made her so happy, could have protected her from her family, from the seal! _Why _did he be so stupid! Now, he saw the results of his ignorance. He saw what had become of the gentle, kind girl that had laid her heart out to him. He saw what became of her when all her dreams, every thing she had ever dared to hope for, came crashing down around her.

For the fourth time, she tried to leave, to escape his now liquid blue gaze, but this time, instead of halting her with a hand clenched around her arm, he enveloped her in both of his.

.

"This is the last night you'll spend alone

Look me in the eyes so I know you know

I'm everywhere you want me to be.

The last night you'll spend alone

I'll wrap you in my arms and I won't let go

I'm everything you need me to be."

.

Hinata sank desperately into his embrace. The tears she had been holding back now flowed freely, soaking the shoulders of his jacket with there crystalline touch. The wetness spread from where she rested her head. It was so warm, so comforting, there in his arms, that she could almost forget everything.

Almost.

She finally worked up the courage to look up, up into his eyes, and ask a single word.

"Why?"

Naruto looked down at the fragile heart in his arms.

"Hinata, I'm so sorry for what I've done to you" he said solemnly. "You're one of my best friends, my precious people, and it hurts me to see you like this."

Hinata's heart sank. Why had she even dared to hope again when he hugged her? That was it; she was still just a friend. And that had been enough for her over the years, but now, after she had finally laid her heart open for him, completely vulnerable, he hadn't even acknowledged her love. And _that_ was too much.

She started to pull away but he hugged her tighter, putting his head next to hers so he was whispering in her ear.

"But I've come to realize you're more than just a friend, and its killing me to see you in such pain." The cords and notes of his voice, despite Hinata's efforts, strung that hope deep in her heart. She couldn't help it, she didn't want to be broken again, twice in a few seconds, but her heart just wouldn't let her give up.

"Look at me, Hinata" he said quietly.

She slowly, fearfully looked up and was locked into his gaze, drowning in a sea of blue.

"Nar…" she started, but was cut off by Naruto pressing a single finger to her lips.

Her usual self screamed in the back of her mind, to blush, to turn red, to faint, _anything, _but the gravity of the situation and her broken spirit drowned this out.

"Hinata" Naruto said "You are the only person who saw me for who I really was back then. You never,_ ever_, looked at me like I was some kind of idiot or monster, you never laughed at me, you never degraded me, all through the years I've known you. You've always been nice to me. Even when it would have been so easy to pick on me along with everyone else, to get back at someone for your families abuse, you never did. I don't believe you ever even thought of it. All this, it should have been enough, but I really was an idiot. It took you to put your life on the line for me to realize it. While everyone else cowered in the rubble, when I was about to be captured and killed, the whole world put at threat from what they wanted to turn me into, _you_ stepped in. _You _protected me; the quite Hyuuga girl that no one thought would amount to anything. _You, _Hinata, put your life on the line for me. That is the single nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. You told me you always just wanted to catch up to me, just to walk next to me, to be there, with me. You said… you loved me." He paused for several seconds from his speech, holding her gaze, lost in the moment.

Naruto whispered the last words with finality. "And, I've come to realize, Hinata… I love you."

Silence reigned in the clearing.

Neither figure moved, nor did their locked eyes. They stared into the depths of each other, exploring, adventuring in the new promise. Finally, it was surprisingly Hinata who broke the silence. By; unsurprisingly, fainting.

She slipped from his arms, the sudden lack of support from her leg muscles catching him off guard. She fell with a soft thud into the grass. Naruto, after his initial shock of not catching her, smiled and sat down next to her. It was good that at least one aspect of the Hinata he loved had returned.

He moved his hand to gently brush some strands of her longer hair out of her face, but this accidently brushed her fringe, revealing the curse lurking underneath. His hand recoiled involuntarily, and he gritted his teeth, a terrible rage boiling up inside of him. He set his hand softly over the mark.

'_What did they do to you?_'

.

"Your parents say everything is your fault

But they don't know you like I know you they don't know you at all.

_I'm so sick of when they say_

_It's just a phase, you'll be ok, you're fine._

But I know it's a lie."

.

Hinata slowly opened her eyes, to find Naruto leaning over her. Still.

Reverting back to herself for a few seconds, she leapt out of his hold.

"Umm, h, how long, was I, er, out?" she stuttered, her familiar habit of fiddling her index fingers together before her face coming back.

Naruto smiled to see her, at least for the moment, back to her incredibly cute self. "About an hour" he said nonchalantly. "Oh" Hinata got out before he stood up to where she was, only inches away.

"Hinata, d, do you remember what I said?" he stuttered slightly, hoping he wouldn't have to repeat his whole speech. It had come straight from the heart, and he was certain he _wouldn't_ be able to do a repeat.

Hinata gulped, and gave an infinitesimal nod. Naruto gained confidence in this.

"It was true. Every word of it. I love you."

He closed the distance between them. Hinata stood stock still as he inched ever closer. They were now mere centre-meters apart.

Then, his lips brushed hers.

The feeling was indescribable, the fulfillment of her lifelong dream, sealed with Naruto's sweet kiss.

Ecstatic tingles galloped up and down her spine as she started reacting, pushing back slightly. Now that it had finally come to her, she put everything into that kiss. She felt Naruto's arms wrap around her shoulders, and she in turn clutched his lower back as the kiss lasted longer and longer. Both shinobi, growing more passionate opened their mouths, exploring each other in new, tantalizing ways with their tongues.

_This_ was pure bliss. Hinata's eyes were closed. She was floating in heaven, living every dream she could ever imagine, and at the same time the only thing that existed was here, with the man of her dreams.

The kiss easily lasted ten minutes, but when they finally broke apart, she felt like it was cut way too short. They stared at each other for an eternity, before Naruto gently brushed her fringe away from her forehead, revealing her new curse.

"Why did you get this?" his voice was husky, quite. "It wasn't your fault, me losing control, and even so, it was what caused me to break free, and win the battle! It very well could have been that your actions saved the village! Those Hyuuga bastards, they blame everything on you, but they don't know you like I do. I know your strong Hinata. Stronger than them. Stronger than this curse. I know you'll never be their slave."

Hinata looked away. Her soft voice lilted out. "I try to oppose them, I really do." She murmured. "But they quickly bring me to boot with the curse. Th,they say this, this rebellion is just a phase, that I'll settle down, get used to being their slave."

Tears fell again as she remembered her first meeting with Hiashi after the sealing. The Curse Mark Sealing Jutsu being used on someone who had almost fully grown was near lethal; it had been the most painful thing she had endured through her whole life. The seal was also more difficult to place on a grown Hyuuga, so it had taken a long time. The aftermath of this was that she was still shaky as she entered the small room and knelt to have lunch with her family.

"Hinata, what are you doing here?" Hiashi's cold voice echoed harshly through the room.

"F, Father?" she said questioningly.

"Don't you dare call me Father!" he exploded. "You were not worthy of being my daughter! You are weak, pathetic, stupid! You are the shame of the Hyuuga!"

The unexpected words cut deep into Hinata's innocent soul, but still he continued.

"Only by your kekkei genkai are you associated to me, if it weren't for that heritage needing protecting you would be banished!"

Molding his chakra, he brought her to her knees before him. The newest branch member's scream echoed out of the open room and throughout the halls of the estate, causing branch and main family alike to shudder. The pain consumed Hinata's head, blocking out all coherent thought.

She vaguely heard her ex-father continue. "You need more disciplinary methods to sort out your misbehavior." He said coldly down to the girl writhing by his feet. "If you act up much more, do not think we will avoid using lethal force to put you down."

With sweet mercy, he increased the pain, and Hinata started to slip into oblivion. Her vision remained for several more moments as she witnessed him kicking her out the open doorway and slamming the door in her face. Then she blacked out, the pain a distant reminder.

"Is it hurting now?" Naruto's soft question brought her out of her flashback. She saw concerned lines dominating his features.

"N, no" she said. "I'm out of range now, th,they don't care about me enough yet to come after me."

Naruto hugged her in relief, then, leaning back, he softly kissed the seal.

"I love you, seal or no seal" he said solemnly, then reactivated his hug. "You're not going back there tonight. I won't let you" he said, whispering into her ear.

He kipped up a bit, a sudden thought having entered his mind. "You're staying at mine tonight!" he said excitedly, brightening up at the idea of spending the night with her, even if she was in a seriously messed up state at the moment.

Leaning down, he again captured her soft soft lips with his. After separating from an enchanted looking Hinata, he took hold of her hand and led her home. To _his _home. It would be her new one.

.

"This is the last night you'll spend alone

Look me in the eyes so I know you know

I'm everywhere you want me to be.

The last night you'll spend alone

I'll wrap you in my arms and I won't let go

I'm everything you need me to be.

The last night away from me."

.

Naruto sat on his old, torn up couch. While his house was usually dreary, dusty, and looked like it was continually forgotten, it seemed lit up tonight. He was content, holding Hinata's hand in silent solace, just sitting there, admiring how much she lit up the room. Closing his eyes, he wrested his head on the back of the couch, a smile lingering on his lips. He perked up at a sudden thought.

"Hey Hinata! You wanna go get some ramen?" he asked, eager to share his favorite meal with her. Hinata sadly accepted the end of her peaceful moment of bliss, but put on a fake smile, just for him.

"Y, yes Naruto-kun, I'd like that" she lied.

She was feeling more and more like herself with each moment that passed in his presence, but she was still unsure of what she would do once this night was over. Could she stand to live with the curse seal?

Her depressing thoughts were scattered when Naruto leapt up and tugged her out of the door in enthusiasm. They ended up at Ichiraku Ramen in no time, Naruto quickly pulling her inside. If it could be called an inside, it was only closed off by the small head height flaps of weighted cotton.

A smirking Ayame greeted them. "Sooo, Naruto, who's your girlfriend? I think I've seen her in here before." She teased. She was on late shift, a long, boring, lonely time, and was eager for some company.

"She's not my-!" Naruto started in instant retaliation, but then remembered their kiss, their deep understanding of each other, and Hinata's vulnerable state. He smirked, but try as he might it erupted into a full faced grin.

"YEA she's my girlfriend!" he burst out, shouting it to the world, pulling said blushing girlfriend into a hug. "Her names Hinata Hyuuga, and she's the nicest, cutest, gentlest, strongest, awesomest girl in the Leaf Village!" he proudly announced his girlfriends qualities to, again, the world.

Ayame smiled at the obvious intense love he had for the poor, blushing girl. "Well, what can I get you?" she said, getting down to business.

Ten bowls of ramen later Naruto leant back in his chair and let out a huge burp, as was his habit. Suddenly remembering his company, he looked over sheepishly, but Hinata was pretending it never happened. Focusing intently on her bowl while her ears burned, she blew carefully on her chopstick full of ramen before putting it in her mouth.

Naruto blinked, and then gawked. One. Two. He slowly counted the bowls piled up before her. '_SIX!_' She was on her sixth bowl now, and was showing no sign of stopping.

'_Wow_' Naruto thought, looking at her in awe. '_She's AWESOME!_'

He looked at his girlfriend with newfound respect and undisguised love, causing her to blush a deep crimson when she noticed, putting her face closer to her bowl in order to try to hide her features.

Even though they had officially been a couple for only a few hours, their love for each other was deeper than most couples achieved in years of being together. This was a result of their childhood stories together, growing from the academy, to genin, and now to Hinata being a chunin and Naruto being the 'Hero of the Hidden Leaf'.

Ayame gazed at the couple across the counter. The way Hinata blushed whenever Naruto showed affection, they were so cute together! She couldn't help but giggle.

When Hinata finished up her bowl and saw that Naruto had finished, she signed that that was her last one. Naruto smiled and pulled out Gama-chan, his friendly little frog wallet, who looked to be bulging, and started pulling out notes. Hinata procured her own small lavender purse from within a deep jacket pocket, and mimicked his movements.

She sadly only counted a few bills there though. This was the last of her money, nowhere near enough to foot her share of the meal. Nevertheless, she pulled out what she had and offered it over.

"I, I'm sorry Naruto-kun" she said sadly. She hated relying on others for stuff like this. "I, I don't quite have enough" she said, blushing in embarrassment. Still, she held out what she did have to him. "I promise I'll pay you back" she added in compensation.

"Nah, it's good" Naruto replied, pushing her money back at her, and emptying his frog pouch to an evilly-greedy looking Ayame. Realizing something, he turned to his girlfriend.

"Hey, aren't you like, rich or something, being a Hyuuga and all?" he asked innocently, not implying any guilt trip, just being curious. He mentally cursed himself when he saw her downcast demeanor. She quietly explained to him.

"M, My funding was stopped as soon as I joined the Branch Family" she admitted sadly. "I have to rely solely on missions now."

Recently, she had been in no state to carry out missions, so her funds had suffered. Naruto looked guilty for bringing up the tender subject, and so thanked Ayame and led her outside. Hinata's gaze was now fixed to the ground beneath her feet in depression.

"Sorry Hinata." His hand found its way to the back of his head, where he absently scratched his blonde hair. "Uhm, lets go back to my apartment for now" he said, turning to head back.

Hinata didn't move, causing him to turn back round with a questioning look. She stood there, head down, finger to lip in her submissive posture, completely vulnerable standing there on the side of the road.

"I, I should really head back" she said quietly. She turned to leave, but was stopped by Naruto's serious voice.

"Hinata, I'm not going to force you, but please, please don't go back there. I couldn't stand to think of what you have to go through in there."

He raised his hand, stretching it out to her, willing her to take it, to take _life_. Emotions raged through Hinata as she stared at his outstretched hand with liquid lavender eyes. _Naruto was_ _there_, offering her everything she ever wanted. Why did she hesitate? Why did she feel she had to go back to the estate? To what? Torture? Degradation? Sadness? Why? Probably just to end her own life? Why would she do that, when everything she ever wanted stood on the footpath before her, laying out his soul for her in the simple gesture of offering her his hand.

Shakily, her own rose. Inch by inch, it closed the distance. Finally, firmly, her slender hand clasped his. He grinned his wolfish grin that made everyone like him, and pulled her into a kiss.

.

"The night is so long when everything wrong

If you give me your hand I will help you hold on.

Tonight

Tonight."

.

The new couple once again sat on Naruto's couch, but this time Naruto had procured a tub of ice-cream from the depths of his fridge for desert. He had checked it over dubiously, confirming that it _wasn't _past its expiry date like most of the other foodstuffs in his house; it had to be top quality for Hinata. Said Hinata loved ice-cream. Especially the Goody-goody Gumdrops flavor they were now devouring.

A single tub sat between them on the couch, both eating out of it with their own separate spoons. It brought back memories of when Hinata had used ice-cream and a good movie or book to help her through tough times. When her family really got to her, or when it was just her time of the month, she remembered struggling to keep her cool and be the kind Hinata the people that knew her loved, and so various times she had taken time out and just relaxed with ice-cream, to dissolve some stress.

She was content now, sitting alone with Naruto, ice-cream and a movie distracting her from darker thoughts.

But no amount of ice-cream could protect her from what happened next.

There came a solid knock on Naruto's glass sliding door leading out to his balcony. The teens whipped around at the intrusion. Hinata gasped when she saw who it was. Hiashi, the leader of her clan; and who she still thought of as her father, stood beyond the glass.

Her gasp was quickly choked off by the crippling pain that bloomed in her forehead, sending jagged blasts of raw agony through every cell in her nervous system. She crumpled to the floor, screaming incoherently. And Hiashi was not letting her black out. The agony went on and on, each second seeming like an hour. The ice-cream slowly seeped into the carpet, having been knocked there, forgotten, when Hinata fell off the couch. Her throat was getting raw from all the screaming, but she couldn't stop it, the pain was too intense to think of anything else.

Hinata's screams tore at Naruto's heart, every time he heard her shrill voice cry out in agony, he felt a part of him die. He desperately shouted at the Hyuuga head.

"What are you doing!" he cried, half crazed with worry. The cold hearted bastard looked at him emotionlessly.

"I've come to retrieve a runaway branch member." He said and proceeded on smashing his way through Naruto's door, entering the room in a shower of glass.

One last pure, agonizing scream ripped through the apartment, echoing through the streets outside, as Hiashi obviously turned up the pain threshold. Thankfully, Hinata collapsed gratefully into blessed, pain free unconsciousness. Naruto breathed a sigh of relief when he saw her prodigious chest still rising and falling slightly. She was still alive.

He turned back to the object of his hatred. "She's not a branch!" he yelled in the impassive Hyuuga's face. "She's your daughter you sadistic freak!"

Hiashi's face twisted in anger. "If you don't hand her over, I will be forced to kill her." he grinded out.

"How could you do that? She's your frickin' daughter!" Naruto replied in denial that anyone could be so cold. So _heartless._

Hiashi scowled again, it had not been the insult that had infuriated him.

"She's not my daughter!" he spat out. "She was never worthy of being my daughter! She is weak and pathetic, the shame of the Hyuuga! She was never my daughter!" he cooled visibly. "No" he said more calmly, a sadistic grin gracing his features.

While common knowledge was that Hiashi really was a 'cold hearted bastard', he had not been originally. The things he had done to his daughter, though having started off with just words, had gotten worse and worse to this point in time, and because of this, had slightly unhinged his mind.

"She's just a rebellious branch member, new to the family, putting the secrets of the Byakugan at risk with her childish actions. If she can't be put in place, she will have to be put down. She will be _exterminated." _

Now it was Naruto's turn to really explode.

"Stop talking about her like she's some kind of livestock or insect you want to squish under your boot! She's a human being!" he raged, growing even angrier when he _saw _Hiashi's reply. A large smirk.

'_This guy_' he thought. '_I'm gonna beat some sense into him, whether it's the last thing I do!_' He was brought up short by his own thoughts. '_But Hinata, he could kill her in an instant_'.

He saw she was awake now, struggling valiantly to regain her feet. Blood trickled from her nose and ears from the aftermath of the seal, and from her mouth, having screamed her throat raw and bloody. Her legs shook uncontrollably as she pushed herself back up with them. Just as she stood straight and tall, Hiashi brought the pain back. She held her ground against it for a few precious moments before he turned up the threshold even more, and she instantly crumpled, writhing in agony.

Such disregard for humanity, something snapped inside Naruto. He forgot all admonitions.

"You mother fucking bastard!" he screamed, charging with his full might, everything he could muster without the Kyuubi. He was having trouble suppressing it, it seemed to react all too quickly when Hinata was involved, but he ruthlessly kept it in check, even through his maddening anger. Such powers unleashed in the confines of his home would definitely hurt Hinata, and with her being unable to move or defend herself, he knew he could very well finish what Hiashi had started.

Hiashi turned to meet him, ignoring the screaming branch member, and slipped into his Gentle Fist stance. He smirked at the youths uncontrolled charge, his skill at taijutsu was nothing compared to the head of the most prodigious taijustu clan in Konoha.

He stepped in to meet the demon boy with a simple but deadly strike to the heart. To his surprise, the Naruto he hit exploded into smoke. Shocked, he activated his kekkei genkai just in time to see a fist crash into the back of his head, sending him smashing unconscious into the wall across the room.

"Such arrogance will always be his downfall" Naruto muttered, the rage filtering out of him. Still, he stalked over to the prone form, Rasengan in hand; intent on making sure he never interfered with Hinata's life again.

"N,N,Naruto-k,kun" Hinata murmured, slowly standing up now that the pain was blessedly gone. Its aftereffects still lingered though, making her stutter her words more than usual between short gasps for breath, making just talking coherently a grind.

"P,please, don't k,kill h,im" she pleaded. Naruto turned to her, a strange look on his face.

"Why? He's done nothing but make your life miserable." He looked into her eyes, and somehow, though he didn't believe how it was possible; her heart must be seriously something else, but he _somehow_ knew the answer before he had even asked it. Definitely before she spoke.

"Because, despite what he says, h,he is still my father, to m,me at least, a,and I still l,love him."

She confirmed in a wavering voice.

Naruto shook his head in wonder. "I'll never understand your capacity for kindness" he said, but nevertheless abided her wishes. He dispelled the Rasengan, picked up the unconscious leader of the highest clan in Konoha and biffed him out the window he had come in. He soared over the balcony, landing on the street below with a dull thump, for someone else to find him and take him to the hospital.

"I'll do anything you want me to, Hinata." He looked her in the eyes and smiled. "I'll be everywhere for you, everything you want me to be." With that heartfelt promise he closed the distance between them and wrapped her in his arms.

.

"This is the last night you'll spend alone

Look me in the eyes so I know you know

I'm everywhere you want me to be.

The last night you'll spend alone

I'll wrap you in my arms and I won't let go

I'm everything you need me to be."

.

Naruto went into the kitchen, coming back with a paper towel with which he softly, gently caressed the blood from Hinata's nose, ears and mouth. Basically, her whole face since it had been smeared everywhere from her contact with the carpet. He smiled when he finished and kissed her full lips. They broke with giggling grins on each side.

"I love you so much" Naruto said.

Hinata beamed, she had wanted to hear him say those words to her for years, for so long she would have given anything for it, and now he had said them to her five times in one day.

"You don't yet know how much I love you too" she said, wrapping herself around him, closing her eyes and burying her head in his shoulder. A beautiful smile graced her face. Eyes closed, she was content, breathing in his musky scent.

Naruto smiled and led them towards the bedroom. Hinata gasped in surprise when they fell onto his bed together, alone in his room, after all that kissing and hugging. Maybe he thought they were ready for _that_ already. She was way too tired from the stress of the last few weeks to resist him if he tried something. She knew she couldn't, _wouldn't_ do anything to stop him. She instantly scolded herself for thinking such things about Naruto. She knew he would _never, ever_ take a woman by force. Not that she would resist, but she knew he knew she was in no condition to do that.

Proving her fears wrong and her belief in him right, he didn't start undressing her, but gently wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his warm embrace, looking into the depths of her eyes.

"It's alright Hinata" he whispered. "I won't let you go."

With that, they fell into loving silence. As the night wore on, despite her best efforts, Hinata's eyes drooped, and eventually she fell asleep in his arms. The last thing she saw were his loving blue eyes, expressing all the emotion he felt for her. She hadn't fallen asleep with human contact since her mother's death so many years ago. This simple gesture meant so much more to her than Naruto could see. This was the best night she could ever have imagined. No, better.

Naruto watched her eyelids hide her beautiful lavender eyes, her breathing slowly even. "I won't let you go Hinata" he whispered again.

He held her through the night, to make sure she didn't leave, didn't go back, to end it all. He lay there, drinking in every little detail of her face. Her sculpted eyebrow, perfectly curved lashes, cushiony soft lips, her face was like a work of art. He gazed upon this masterpiece all night long, until finally, in the early hours of the morning, he drifted into slumber, dreaming about the shy, quiet girl he held in his arms, who had despairingly appeared before him that afternoon.

.

"I won't let you say goodbye

I'll be your reason why.

The last night away from me

Away from me."

.

Hope you enjoyed, I really did writing it, felt kinda like poetry. Sorry for the one bad swearword by the way, I don't really like swearing that much and don't do it a lot in real life, but Naruto was _that_ pissed. Does anyone willing to give a review know how to do those lines that separate bits of the story. I just used full stops. Look out for my long story as well, it focuses mainly on Hinata, is NaruHina, so yea, awesome.


	2. Chapter 2: Awake and Alive

Chapter 2: Awake and Alive

A NaruHina Songfic

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Surprise! Did you all think that was a one shot? Haha so did I, but thanks to my awesome first reviewer Uzumakiluver, she convinced me to make this into a series! Yes, it's going to be a small songfic series. Yay. Also, thanks to my other reviewer's and those of you who put it on favourites or story alert or author alert and didn't review, it all still makes me feel really good! Now that I know how awesome it is to get reviews I'll definitely review on more stories I read. Sorry it took so ridiculously long to get this out, the last one was pure inspiration but I kinda had to force this one out, plus I had heaps of other stuff like… nah jokes I'm not gonna make up heaps of excuses, just barrage me in the reviews for taking so long. Oh yea, I'm loving the starting at the moment (I'm up to episode 195 I think? Or whichever the Neji Chroncles episode is) where all Naruto's buddies push him up out of the water. You can just see it on Hinata's face. 'Oh my god I'm touching Naruto's bum!' Blush. Faint. Drown. Naruto dives back into the water not for evil teme Sasuke but for her! Hahaha Hinata you're the… girl. You're awesome! Ok on with the story now I've had my little talk. Umm, yea it's still a songfic just takes ages to get into it, it's a lot long than The Last Night. Sorry if the fight scenes are a bit over the top but that's just how I get my kicks… Anyway, read on!

PS: I fixed up some spelling errors in The Last Night, if anyone really cares.

For the song normal writing is guy, italics is girl.

PPS: Oops forgot disclaimer: No I obviously still don't own Naruto or even Hinata no matter how much I want to, neither do I own any other characters - *Sadface.

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Hinata slowly opened her eyes, her dreams lingering in her half-sleep state.

"Mmmm, Naruto" she mumbled. Her vision slowly became clearer, un-blurring to reveal a face she knew every detail of. "Aah! Naruto!" she screamed in shock. She actually _was_ in bed with him! Naruto groggily opened his eyes.

"Huh? Hinata?" he said sleepily. Last night slowly came back to the now flustered girl. So it _wasn't_ a dream. A glorious smile plastered itself across her face.

"Good morning Naruto-kun." She said shyly, her red face dying down to a blush that highlighted her features.

Naruto let out a huge yawn. "Morning!" he greeted the enthusiastically, he too was now fully awake. He hopped out of bed, still clothed from the night before, and gave Hinata a huge smile. "Do you want the shower first?" the blonde asked, remembering his manners.

"Uhh, n,no, you go ahead" Hinata said with a smile as she sat up in the bed. Naruto grinned when he saw her bed-head; having slept on one side the entire night her hair was flattened in one patch while the rest was a tousled mass. "Awesome bed head!" he said cheekily as he leapt out of the room, a pillow hitting the wall in his wake.

Hinata, after seeing her failed throw with the pillow, slowly extricated herself from the sheets. She stood up and a sudden thought hit her.

'_IjustsleptwithNaruto!_' rushed through her head, the thought bringing her straight back down onto the bed as her legs gave out. "Wow" she breathed; she had come too close for comfort to fainting _again_. Just the thought of it had made her extremely woozy and red faced. She stood again and carefully made the bed, then stepped out to his living room. She sweat dropped at the state that greeted her.

'_How did I not notice this last night!_' she thought. The ice-cream they had been eating had turned a patch of carpet into a slimy, sticky mess, adding to the multitude of rubbish littering the room. The majority of this consisted of instant ramen cups. '_Typical_' she thought with a slight giggle to herself. The room was in a shocking state. Hinata went into the kitchen, which was in an equally horrendous state from what looked like multiple attempts to make ramen.

'_Typical!_' She rummaged through the cupboards until she found a big black rubbish bag. Thus armed, she wielded the bag to war against the mess.

Ten minutes later she put her hands on her hips and smiled at the sparkling room, just like any ordinary girl. Naruto was still in the shower, so she took off the yellow rubber gloves she had procured and stepped out onto the balcony. The door was now glassless so she didn't even have to open it, and her feet weren't in any danger from cuts as she'd already swept up the glass into her rubbish bag.

She had been embarrassed when she woke up to find she was even still wearing her _sandals, _and so when he had gone to the shower she had quickly slipped them off, placing them neatly by the door beside his black ninja boots that had obviously just been thrown there.

She breathed in the fresh morning air and looked out into the street below. A wave of relief swept over her when she saw Hiashi _wasn't _still there, some ninja on night shift must have picked him up. She relaxed and sat down with her back to the wall, gazing out over the street below. This was familiar territory for her, and the constant sound of water running from the shower lulled her into a state where she was lost in her memories.

Hinata remembered days when she had snuck out of the Hyuuga compound to come to this very place, to come lose herself on Naruto's balcony with her memories of him. When he was on his three year training trip, she had missed him big time, so this was the closest she could get to remind her of her role model. Even since he got back, when he was on missions or training she would sometimes come here. She had gotten the best of her strange habit of stalking him, and instead came up to his balcony, to get away from the hassles of life. To just think about the boy she loved.

This had been her sanctuary. Now Naruto was her sanctuary. This had been her little secret place she could come to get away from her family, from the stress of life as a ninja, from _everything_. Now Naruto would be this for her. Now they were together, he was her living sanctuary.

Hinata absently scratched the seal on her forehead. Even in _this_ place, her family had intruded. She looked at the broken door. Try as she might, she couldn't just forget them. She knew. They would come back for her.

Hearing the shower stop, she got up and walked back inside to see Naruto exit the bathroom wearing nothing but a towel. She instantly turned red seeing his naked torso.

"Umm! Umm!" she blurted out. He finally noticed her standing red faced just inside the door to the balcony.

"Are you alright Hinata?" he asked, concerned something had happened outside. Being a guy, he didn't really care that she saw him in just a towel.

"Y, Yes!" Hinata stuttered. She covered her eyes behind her hands and rushed to the bathroom. Because of her now blind view, she smacked hard into the doorframe, having misjudged her trajectory. "Ouch" she said, rubbing her head, then quickly hopped through the door and slammed it behind her.

She pressed her back up to it, sighing in relief to be away from the naked object of her desires. The blush slowly left her face, and, opening eyes she went about washing up.

Naruto stared at the closed door. "Okaay" he said carefully. '_She must really want the shower_' he concluded, smiling to himself. He loved Hinata's antics. She was so cute how her face fluctuated so frequently from white to pink to red whenever he saw her.

He turned to go to his bedroom, and got a hell of a shock witnessing a sparkling white room. "Awesome" he said out loud in awe. How had she done all this in such a short amount of time? She really was, just… _awesome_.

Entering his room he changed into a clean orange jacket and track pants. He then went into the kitchen, turning on a decrepit stove that looked like it hadn't been used in months. Rummaging through the pantry, he started producing various ingredients. He had a surprise for Hinata when she got out of the shower.

Hinata emerged from the shower reborn. She had not only washed off the dirt and blood from the last day's torture, but washed off some of her stress and worry about her family. She had completely relaxed in the shower, knowing she was safe with Naruto there to protect her. She let her worries flow off her with the water running down her long dark hair, flowing over the porcelain white contours of her body, taking away the stresses of life.

She left the bathroom with her hair freshly brushed, though to her embarrassment wearing the same dirty jacket she had yesterday. She obviously hadn't thought she would need another day's clothes when she had gone to see Naruto for what she thought was the last time. She smiled to herself despite of it. '_How things have changed_.'

Stepping through the door she came upon a strange smell. It was a bit like breakfast ramen, but somehow, off. Curious, she peeped her head into the kitchen. When she saw Naruto standing vigilant over the stovetop in an apron, she couldn't help but giggle.

Stirring a pot full of noodles, his expression was deadly serious, even with the absurd apron. He was so cute! She pictured him in a chef's hat and giggled even harder. Naruto grinned when he saw his girlfriend in a good mood.

"Hey there, I thought you'd like some breakfast!" he greeted cheerfully. Hinata grinned back before another fit of giggles overpowered her. Naruto loved hearing that laugh. Her real laugh. The one that just bubbled out of her, full of pure happiness. It wasn't mean or abrasive or forced like many peoples laughs, it didn't make him feel bad like she was laughing _at_ him. No. It was just the pure, unhindered sound of joy.

For the first time, he truly saw the 'sunny place' that was the unsuppressed Hinata Hyuuga. And he loved it. When she finally controlled her amusement at seeing him in an apron, Hinata managed a few coherent words.

"I'd like that" she said with a smile, so Naruto poured the noodles into two bowls, chucked various spices over them, and carried them out to the table in his living room. They both took a seat opposite each other and sat down.

Naruto gestured enthusiastically for Hinata to try the meal he made for her. Hinata smiled. Naruto had cooked for her! It didn't matter that it didn't smell very good, and looked incredibly dubious the way it was thrown together, but that was irrelevant. Just the thought was everything to her. Picking up her chopsticks, she initiated the meal with tradition ingrained on her since she was three.

"Itadakimasu" she said, broke her chopsticks, and carefully wrapped some noodles around them. Smiling nervously at his intense gaze, she popped the chopsticks full of noodles in her mouth.

"Mmhmm" she started in appreciation, but then as she chewed her face slowly turned blue, an odd shade for Hinata's usually red tones. She quickly swallowed to get the food away from her taste buds as quickly as possible. This however, led to prolonged choking when she rushed it and the noodles stuck in her throat.

She spluttered about in her seat like a fish out of water. Between hitting her chest with a fist and coughing fits, she forced out "I, Its g - cough - great Naru - cough - to - cough - kun."

She ran for the kitchen and put her mouth under the tap. Rapidly spinning the top she desperately gulped in water, clearing her airways to wash out the now _in_-famous noodles. Wiping the remnants of cleansing tap water from her mouth with her jacket sleeve, she re-entered the living room.

Hinata smiled sheepishly as she retook her seat. Naruto was eagerly gobbling down his own bowl. '_If he can eat it, so can I_" she resolved herself. Naruto, noticing her return, quickly turned to her.

"Are you aright Hinata-chan?" he asked in sincere concern. The compliment was so unexpected she instantly stopped what she had begun to do, wrap up another chopstick full of noodles. She was lucky they were not already in her mouth, she would have been back under the tap in an instant.

"H,Hinata, ch, ch, cha,n?" she stuttered out in shock, her face fluctuating bright pink.

Naruto grinned. "Yea, you are my girlfriend, I'm definitely calling you that from now on, I gotta repay you all those 'Naruto-kun's' remember"

"G, g, girlfriend?" poor Hinata struggled to get it out with her soft voice. It all really sank in for her then. She was Naruto's girlfriend! The innocent girl turned red and promptly fainted in glee at the thoughts that infected her mind of what could happen as a result of their pairing. Naruto leapt up as he saw her start to topple and caught her just before she hit the ground.

Unfortunately, he knocked over his ramen in the process. He sweat dropped at Hinata's antics. "Ahh, Hinata, this is gonna be fun" he said in exasperation to the unconscious girl in his arms.

Thankfully, when Hinata woke up she was saved from eating more of the lethal ramen by a very guilty looking Naruto. His face said it all. 'I ate it'.

"W, we better get going" she said nervously. She was nervous because last night there had been so much blissful kissing, but this morning she hadn't even got a hug. Did he still feel the same way? Her anxiety was getting the best of her until she remembered not moments ago he had called her 'girlfriend'.

She blushed and twiddled her index fingers up by her face as she meekly followed him to the door, knowing of what she wanted but _way_ to scared to ask for it. He already had his black ninja boots on so she bent over to put on her own shoes.

Picking up a black sandal she slipped her delicate looking foot through the ankle brace that connected to the rest of the piece with two small black straps. She wriggled her toes under the wide armored strap that protected the joints between her toes and foot. While her sandals were extremely cute, comfy and flexible, the main reason she had chosen them was for their extremely durable qualities and protection, they had been vital components in the success of some of her missions.

From the corner of her eye, she saw Naruto glancing towards her strangely, then blushing lightly and averting his gaze to the floor, before being drawn back to her. She turned bright crimson when she realized what he was doing. She noticed she was in the perfect position for it. He was desperately trying not to check out her bent over bum, but failing miserably.

Quickly stepping into her other sandal she jumped up and turned to him with her hands clasped together in front of her, still a little pink in the face from embarrassment. She gasped in involuntary surprise when he stepped not inches away from her. His eyes were intense, all trace of lust from his previous view swept away.

"Hinata, no matter what happens today, remember I love you" he whispered. A feeling of dread crept over her as she started to think of the complications, of what everyone's reactions would be.

Such thoughts were shattered when Naruto's lips closed on hers. Her eyes drooped shut in bliss. All she could think of was how good it felt. It was indescribable. The only word for it was. Love. There was nothing better in the world than this, nothing _else_ in the world. _This_ was what she lived for.

They finally parted, a smile once again plastered across Hinata's features. Naruto grinned at her reaction, and gave her an extra quick peck on the lips. Her eyes sparkled with that enchanted look she had when he had first kissed her. Every time they kissed was like the thrill of the first time, yet it felt so familiar and comfortable it was like they had been doing it everyday for years.

He loved making her happy, it was better than any feeling he had experienced before in his young life. He especially loved the feel of her soft lips moving with his, and when she was bold enough to wrap her arms around him, rustling their jackets together to add to their unity.

The couple finally left the depths of each others eyes and walked together out the door. Naruto locked it behind them, then, confidently taking up Hinata's hand, they headed over to the Hokage's office to meet their respective teams and reveal there fate.

.

Naruto was met by a punch in the face. An irate Sakura slowly retracted her fist, glaring into the Naruto shaped hole in the wall behind the door to the Hokage's office.

"Why the hell are you two hours late! You're worse than Kakashi-sensei!" she yelled at Naruto's prone form. "Huh. Hinata?"

She stopped her barrage suddenly, noticing the meek Hyuuga standing in shock in the hallway just outside the doorframe, having narrowly missed being taken out and squashed between Naruto and a wall. Not that she would have minded being squashed into Naruto; but she would probably have fainted. Plus, walls are pretty hard.

"H,Hi Sakura-san" she said quietly. She couldn't bring herself to add 'chan' instead of san after seeing her imbed the love of her life in 30 inches of specially fortified concrete Hokage tower wall.

Sakura huffed, but quieted down a bit after seeing Hinata. Grabbing Naruto by the ear she forcibly dragged him out of his hole, into an amused Hokage's office.

"N,Naruto-kun" Hinata whispered under her breath in concern. No-one heard her though, and she knew Naruto was used to this treatment; he had been Sakura's teammate for years. Not that she thought it was ok though. How he had ever liked her was beyond the capacities of her mind, even with her renowned kindness.

"Good, you're finally here." Tsunade said as Naruto and Sakura joined Sai and Kakashi while Hinata went over to her own teammates. She greeted her friends with a gentle "Hello."

She noticed the InoShikaCho trio was also there. The only sensei attendant was Kakashi, as Asuma had passed away a while ago and Kurenai was in hospital with her newborn baby.

Dispelling all curiosity, Tsunade explained why they were all here. "Sorry" she said sheepishly with a too sweet closed eye smile. "I _did _have a mission for you all, but unfortunately yesterday there was some trouble with a particular clan, so all today's missions are cancelled."

She looked pointedly at Naruto and Hinata, who didn't fail to notice this and cringed visibly under her glare. "Therefore, you're all dismissed. You have the day off. Go train or something."

Another closed eyed smile came before her face again transformed to deadly serious. She stared the two victims down. "Naruto, Hinata. Stay behind" she said menacingly.

Their teammates slowly filed out with confused and curious looks on their faces. Except Shino of course, who was as blank as ever. Hinata fearfully looked away from a sympathetic Kiba and turned back to the Hokage. Taking a deep breath, she was the calm before the storm.

Hands templed before her face, elbows resting on the wide mahogany desk, the Hokage stared them down in the silence. Finally she sighed. "What am I to do with you two?" she asked herself. "An ANBU picked up the leader of the most prominent clan in the village this morning. Hiashi _Hyuuga _was lying unconscious in the dirt of the street, right outside _your_ house Naruto. This ANBU was obviously curious to this peculiar occurrence, and so performed some surveillance on the surrounding area. What he saw was quite shocking. You, Naruto, in bed, holding Hinata Hyuuga, a valued branch member of the Hyuuga clan."

She looked accusingly at said girl; who was now flushing various shades of red, indicating it was not all Naruto's fault, that Hinata was in deep water too.

"Uh, Umm." She couldn't come up with a feasible excuse for such an embarrassing experience on the spot like that. So, she just stuttered away in typical Hinata fashion under the stony gaze of the Hokage. It didn't last long; her savior in gleaming orange quickly came to the rescue.

"Shut it Grandma!" he shouted rudely. "She's my _girlfriend_ now and we can do whatever we want. The Hyuuga don't own me, and they certainly don't own _her_! That idiot Hiashi guy was asking for it, he was hurting Hinata-chan for no reason other than his own sadistic wants! I don't stand for that kind of crap and I won't stand for yours, even if you _are_ Hokage! I love Hinata! And I'll do _anything_ for her!" Naruto finally finished his outburst, breathing raggedly in frustration and anger.

"Hinata, please leave and return to your team" Tsunade said, coldly dismissing the girl. Hinata didn't move, not wanting to leave Naruto's side. Especially after that heartfelt defense.

Tsunade's brow drew down in anger at the girl's hesitation. Hinata looked to Naruto in concern, but he just turned to her and gave her a confident grin. "Don't worry Hinata-chan, I'll be alright" he said sincerely.

She accepted the truth in his eyes, smiled, bowed stiffly but politely to the Hokage she now didn't like all that much, and left the room. However, as soon as the door closed she leant up against the wall and whispered "Byakugan".

Her kekkei genkai active, she could read Tsunade's lips through the wall. She couldn't see Naruto's mouth moving; he was facing the other way, but she knew him well enough to get the gist of what he was saying just by his body language. She closed her eyes, being able to see through her eyelids, and bowed her head. This way, her bangs drifted forward slightly and obscured the view of her eyes from the sides, hiding the bulging veins that were the telltale of her blood limit. Standing there, leaning casually against the wall, head down in what looked like the usual 'Hinata depression', she appeared to belong there, just another ninja waiting for her appointment.

Back in Tsunade's office, Naruto was thoroughly pissed off. "What the hell Granny Tsunade! Why are you giving us so much crap! Do you even know what they do to her! I won't let that happen again, no matter what. I give my word on that."

Outside, Hinata's heart soared. She knew Naruto's nindo intimately, it was her own, and so she knew she was safe with him now. If only she was that self assured, but the following conversation again made her doubt.

"I'm well aware of that" Tsunade said. "However, Hinata is used to suffering, it's made her the strong kunoichi she is today. She's coped with it ever since her Mother passed all those years ago. While I admit her abuse has got noticeably worse lately, she _will_ get used to it, just like all the other branch members. She will become a stronger ninja thereof."

Naruto stood in mute disbelief. Fists clenched, head down, he was shaking in barely suppressed rage at such blasphemy. He couldn't believe the words coming out of his 'revered' Hokage's mouth.

"No" he whispered. "No, she won't go through that anymore. She won't suffer anymore!" he finished shouting, tears of frustration watering his eyes. He couldn't stand to think about Hinata having to endure the pain of what happened last night, everyday for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

"Naruto" Tsunade said more gently. "It could make your dreams of becoming Hokage impossible." His head snapped up instantly.

"What are you saying" he growled.

"You can't steal Hinata without there being consequences. Having such an important clan as the Hyuuga directly oppose you would make it literally impossible for you to fulfill your dream." Tsunade explained. "Just think about that before you throw it all away for this girl."

Naruto stood stock still, unmoving. "Hokage" he whispered. "That is my dream" he echoed all his past bravado on his goal, but this time, his voice was filled with loathing. An inner struggle raged within him. He wouldn't leave Hinata, but how could he give up his own lifelong dream just like that?

Outside, unknown to the occupants of the room, Hinata chose that time to leave. She knew from watching too many sappy romance movies that she probably picked the worst moment to run off in tears; that everything would turn out good if she waited just a little longer, but she couldn't help it. Her heart was breaking.

She did run off in tears. She knew what he would choose. Hokage had always been his dream, even since he was just a little kid. She couldn't take that away from him, who was she to do that to him, the girl who had come sulking to him for consolidation only yesterday! She had put all her faith in him, and now was heartbroken. But it was her decision to let him go, she wanted him to be Hokage, she didn't want to get between him and his dream. She didn't want to be selfish.

Quickly brushing the tears away with her jacket sleeve, she exited the Hokage building. Increasing her pace, Hinata ran through the village to her team's regular training ground, to spend the rest of the day grinding away all thought in grueling exercise with Shino, Kiba, and Akamaru.

.

Before Hinata reached her team she composed herself, and then walked calmly into the clearing like nothing had happened. Akamaru was the first to sniff her out and bounded over, jumping all over her.

"Hello there Akamaru-kun" she smiled half heartedly at the excited dog. "G,Good morning Kiba-kun, Shino-kun." She greeted the rest of her team.

"Hey Hinata!" Kiba said with the same enthusiasm his dog emitted, and she got a stoic nod from Shino, about as much affection as he would show. "So, what was that all about?" Kiba inquired about her meeting with the Hokage straight away, his usual boisterous self.

"Umm, n,nothing" she meekly dodged the question, but it didn't work on her teammates. First, they were sensory ninja and second, they had known her for years.

"C'mon Hinata, you don't have to lie to us, I know you hate it." Kiba said. Hinata sighed in defeat. How had she ever expected to fool her best friends with such a pathetic decoy?

"W, well, l,last night, me and N,Naruto-kun, we, well, we w,went to his apartment, and then F,Father came to bring me back, but Naruto-kun beat him up, th,then we, umm, well" she turned bright red at this part, looking anywhere but her teammates. She couldn't believe she was saying this!

"Umm, w,we, umm, well, we kind of, uh, s,slept together." She mumbled it so quietly she was sure they couldn't hear. Unfortunately, they did.

"WHAT!" Kiba shouted, and Shino actually showed some emotion - surprise.

"Hinata, I didn't think you were that kind of gi-" he started but was cut of by Kiba.

"What the hell Hinata! Since when have you guys even been going out! _Are_ you even going out? Or did that idiot force himself on you! That Naruto, I'll kill him!"

Hinata quickly defended her love from their outbursts, red from what they thought. She waved her hands in front of herself as if trying to ward off attack. "No no no, w,we did nothing like _that_." She stayed a bright fluorescent pink at the mention of it. "W,we just hugged, that's all."

"Okaay…." Kiba said, extremely confused. "Ah, so what did Tsunade want you for anyway?"

"She, she said that Naruto couldn't steal me from the Hyuuga. She threatened him with never being able to become Hokage. She gave him a choice, me or his lifetime dream. I, I know what he'll choose." She looked at the ground dejectedly and despite her efforts let out a few light sobs that wouldn't be held in.

Shino chose that moment to speak up again and came and put a sturdy hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry Hinata, Naruto cares a _lot_ more about his precious people than his own dreams, I'm sure he'll chose you." He said, stoically comforting the girl. Hinata looked up at her even quieter teammate.

"R,really?" she said, the spark of hope lighting again. "B,but, how could I do that to him?" She would hate it to be the one to break him, to take his dreams from him.

"It's his choice Hinata, don't feel guilty about it" Shino consoled.

Meanwhile, Kiba was on a different train of thought. '_Hmm, they __are__ her family. I know there not 100% caring but their still family. She's got to stay with them. But they did put that stupid seal on her. But I guess there was a reason. Arg!_' he held his head, all that thinking way too confusing.

"Tsunade's probably right" he said finally, causing a glare from Shino and a teary gaze from Hinata. He continued despite the obvious admonitions. "I mean, they _are_ your family, no matter how big assholes they are. And you do have the Byakugan that needs protecting." He started to realize the implications of what he had started saying. He continued on, his pace getting quicker. "They could take drastic measures to get it back! To get you back. If you don't want to go back to them peacefully Hinata, I'm worried what they'll do to you." He said the last words solemnly. "They, they could just decide it would be easier to kill you."

Silence hung in the clearing for several minutes, until Kiba broke the self made silence. Such was the problem with having two ridiculously quiet teammates, the loud, boisterous one -himself, had to break up awkward situations like this, even if _he_ was the one who made it.

"Ok you think about it Hinata, but for now, lets do some training!" Akamaru accentuated him with a bark of agreement, and so Team 8 set to work, if a little more awkwardly than usual. Still, the intense training helped Hinata forget her fears for a few hours, and she was grateful her teammates were there with her, helping her through this ordeal.

.

Naruto marched up to his own team, muttering angrily under his breath. "Stupid Granny Tsunade, stupid Hiashi, stupid elders" he cursed all the higher-ups in his village for their ridiculously strict rules of state.

"What was that about Naruto?" Kakashi immediately interrogated him, though it was subtle with his ever present nonchalant tone and nose stuck in his dirty book.

"None of your business" Naruto growled. Kakashi looked up in mild surprise. '_He really is angry_.'

"Well, I know it had to have _something_ to do with the stirring up of the Hyuuga's this morning when they found their leader was in hospital." Naruto balked. '_Crap! How did Kakashi find out?_'

"Umm, yeah, it was about that" he admitted "But it's none of your business!" he shouted.

Kakashi saw that he wouldn't get through to the boy. Being an ex-ANBU, he still had connections and so had found out early that morning the occurrences of last night. Therefore fully aware of the gravity of the situation, he decided to leave it for now. He instructed his team to start training. With many a confused glance from Sakura and Sai, they began the day.

.

After a hard day's training, Hinata didn't know what to do. Her teammates had already left with consoling pats on the shoulder, so she was now standing alone in their training ground, hesitant to make a move. She was turning her head back and forth between where she knew the Hyuuga estate was and where Naruto's house was.

It was almost like she could see them; of course she would have been able to if she had her blood limit activated, but at the moment it wasn't. Memories of each place were enough to picture them. She was torn between going back to the hell that was her ancestral home, probably at the sacrifice of her own life, or going to the heaven that was Naruto, at the sacrifice of his dream. Being an incredibly _un_selfish, self-sacrificing person, Hinata quickly made up her mind. She put Naruto's dreams before her own wellbeing, and resigned herself to her fate, turning to go back to the estate.

Just as she took her first step towards it, she gasped in surprise as two black sleeved arms wrapped around her shoulders from behind and a soft kiss was planted on her neck. Its sweet tingle lingered on her skin where he had parted her hair just above where her hitai ate was tied, to gain access to her creamy soft skin.

"N,Naruto-kun!" she stuttered in surprise at the sudden contact. She felt him grinning into her neck.

"Hey there Hina-chan" he whispered seductively. He pulled her against him and she turned her head to face him with wide eyes. Which widened even further when; seeing her gently quivering lips, he dived onto them with his own. Hinata closed her eyes in ecstasy. She gently kissed back, not willing to break the moment for what she knew she had to do. Finally they separated, all too soon for her, that was probably their last kiss.

Before he could distract her anymore, she resolved herself and forced it out. "N,Naruto-kun, w,we c,cant see each other a,anymore." She grinded out. It was the single hardest sentence she had ever said in her life, harder even than confessing her love to him. Because this was destroying him. She could see the pain in his eyes, and tears swelled up in hers as she saw what she had done to him.

This didn't leave her with that soaring feeling like when she had confessed, it left her feeling like the scum in the bottom of the swamp, not even worthy to be stepped on by Naruto's boot. Like the mud at the bottom of the swamp, she would forever be able to see the light at the top that was Naruto; forever reach for it, but never touch it.

"W,what?" Naruto now stuttered, his heart fragmented, the tiny little pieces of life piercing his insides like fire. He was shocked beyond words. He couldn't even formulate the typical 'You're breaking up with me?' sentence.

Hinata couldn't bring herself to say anymore, yet she couldn't bring herself to leave him like this either, not with all the pain she had just put on him. '_It's for you Naruto-kun_' she thought. She hugged him as tightly as she could, never wanting to let him go. There, with her head buried in his jacket, hearing the rhythmic beat of his shattered heart, she confessed.

"I, I saw what Tsunade said" she murmured into his clothes. Leaving out the 'Lady' title was the closest she ever came to an insult to the Hokage she no longer respected. "I won't come between you and your dreams. Y,you have always wanted to become Hokage, that dream has made you the person you are today, the person I love. I _won't_ be the person who destroys you, even if it's by trading my own life." Silence overwhelmed them. Slowly, fearfully, she looked into his eyes as she pulled away.

.

"I'm at war with the world

And they try to pull me into the dark

I struggle to find my faith

As I'm slipping from your arms."

.

Naruto slowly advanced on the fragile girl. She backed away with every step he made towards her. He opened his arms in a silent plea. "Hinata, please, just let me decide" he pleaded.

"No! I won't do it to you!" Hinata screamed and sprinted away.

"Damn it!" Naruto cursed and chased after her. He couldn't let her go back; he didn't know what they would do to her if she reached the Hyuuga compound first. Unfortunately, he didn't catch up as quickly as he thought; Hinata was extremely nimble and fast.

Just in time, he got to her before she reached the gates of hell. He, of course, chasing her, had a lot more incentive, so adrenaline took over him, allowing him to reach her in time. He caught her in his arms and held her tight as she struggled feebly to break free.

Well, he thought it was feeble until she started using actual ninja techniques on him. Getting a hand free, she started molding her chakra. He felt little cuts appear on his arms as she expelled sharpened chakra from her free hand, she was using her ultimate defense technique to escape him. He gritted his teeth and held on; he knew the small lacerations he was getting were nothing. She could easily chop him limb from limb if she used the full strength of the justu, but still he held on. Even with her panicking so much, he trusted that she wouldn't kill him.

Even as Hinata started using the Protection of the Eight Trigrams she remembered who was holding her. She saw blood dripping off the various cuts in his arms, his sleeves torn to shreds and soaked in blood. "Oh my god Naruto-kun, I'm so sorry!" she said in a panicked voice as she twirled in his arms. She started to hyperventilate seeing what she had done to him. "Naruto I never wanted to hurt you!" she said without a pause between words, her breath now coming in constant tiny puffs.

He caught her with his eyes, locking her in until she calmed somewhat. "Hinata" he whispered. His voice worked miracles for the crazed girl, she was instantly calming down in his arms. "I never want to be the Hokage of a people that would allow you to suffer. I choose you."

He sealed his decision with a soft kiss, leaving her gasping, speechless, wanting more... "Naruto-kun" was all she could say. She wanted to say he should be Hokage more, to try to convince him otherwise, but she could see in the depths of his eyes that his mind was set. Nothing would change that now. To himself, he had given his word.

"C'mon, let's go back" Naruto said, taking her hand and leading her through the trees towards his home.

.

Along the way they picked up some _fresh_ groceries for dinner when they passed through the market, and when they got home Hinata quickly volunteered to cook. She didn't mind cooking, and if it was for Naruto, she loved it. She still remembered when she had made cookies in the shape of his head.

'_What were you thinking_?' she giggled to herself as she prepped for cooking.

Naruto had not wanted to eat his own head at first, but when he had finally taken a bite he was blown away by the taste. She blushed to herself as she remembered what he said. "You'd make a great wife to someone one day!" he had shouted enthusiastically, reducing her to a blushing wreck.

She peeped into the lounge, seeing her now _boyfriend_ sitting on the couch watching T.V. '_Wife huh?_' she imagined. She lost herself in that future of possibilities as she went back to cooking their meal.

It was supposed to be a surprise, but it was pretty easy to guess. She was making him ramen.

"Wow! This is _awesome_!" Naruto couldn't believe the taste swimming around his mouth. This ramen rivaled Ichirakus! "How can you be so awesome at cooking too!" he mumbled between mouthful after mouthful of Hinata's secretly flavored homemade ramen.

"Well, umm, I" Hinata couldn't form coherent answers under his torrent of complements. She tried some herself, and couldn't stop "Mmmm, yummy!" from coming out. '_It is pretty good; I guess_' she thought, though too modest to come out and say it was awesome to herself.

Cinnamon scrolls were for desert. These were a first for Naruto. They were Hinata's favorite treat, so to consummate their first normal night together she had baked them specially. She was glad Naruto liked them, but was a little ashamed that she ate six out of the batch of eight she cooked. She just couldn't help herself, she could resist them normally but if they were sitting on the table before her it took S-rank determination to resist.

After dinner, they quickly went to bed, weary from the days stress and training. Naruto reassured her over and over again that he was happy with his choice, it was obvious by her demeanor that she still felt guilty about it.

"Anyway, I can always find another way to become Hokage" he said. Hinata smiled at him, his reassurances were overwhelming her self doubt. "Ok Naruto-kun" she said kindly.

They had also bought a few extra clothes for her earlier as she dared not go back to the estate, so her pajamas were now an oversized white t-shirt that came almost to her knees, and to her immense embarrassment, just undies for the bottom half. It looked like she was wearing the t-shirt and nothing else!

This time Naruto closed the curtains just incase another ANBU got nosy about the new couple on the block, and they went to bed. "Good night Hinata-chan" Naruto said with a slight yawn.

Hinata blushed, she still wasn't used to that name. "Good night Naruto-kun" she said softly. "Love you" she added in a whisper, happy that she could finally bring herself to say it so freely. It just felt so right. Her heart soared when he said it back and proved it with a sweet goodnight kiss before they both drifted off into their respective dreams of each other.

.

"Jitensha! Jitensha!" the familiar repeated notes of 'bicycle' instantly snapped Hinata from her sleep. She shut off her alarm as fast as possible before Naruto could wake up. It had barely gotten out the second word before she shut it off. Hinata was so used to it the first note would wake her. Because of this, Naruto didn't even have a chance to register he had heard it, and so just kept slumbering away.

Hinata had wanted to get up early so he could wake up to a surprise. Since she presumed his normal wake up time, like all ninja, was seven, and it was five thirty, she reasoned she would have enough time for a shower before she set to work. However, before her shower she hand washed her jacket and track pants so she would finally have some clean clothes to wear that day, she couldn't go in a baggy t-shirt and undies, and would be way to embarrassed by the obvious hint of wearing Naruto's clothes. She hung her jacket over the windowsill so it would hopefully be dry by the time she was finished, and then hopped in the shower.

Closing her eyes while the steaming water ran over her porcelain white skin, she came to a decision. Thinking once again about her family, her duties as a ninja, her friends, and her love, as the water flowed over the curves of her body, she decided to put all she had into Naruto.

She would trust him completely to look after her, but she would also look after him and their relationship in turn. She would never give up; she would fight for it if she had to. She would stand her ground, no matter what _anyone_ said.

Hinata left the bathroom resolved and determined, but ecstatic about the possibilities that were laid open before her. She grabbed her ninja gear, though still damp so a little uncomfortable she felt better wearing it again, instead of the sleepwear she had at the moment, which felt incredibly skimpy to her. Sadly, when she was toweling her hair dry and walking back into the bedroom to grab something, Naruto was already sitting up in bed, yawning like a cat. Still, she was happy as always to see him, so sat down next to him, hoping for a little something.

"G,Good morning Naruto-kun" she said shyly, blushing slightly at what she wanted.

"Morning Hinata-chan" he said enthusiastically and gave her a good morning kiss, just what she had been hoping for. Her eyes fluttered closed in rapture. It ended all too soon for her, as always; forever wouldn't be long enough when they were joined at the lips.

Naruto went and had a shower and Hinata rushed into the kitchen, making Naruto his surprise, a quick batch of breakfast ramen. She went about grabbing ingredients out of cupboards, until she realized there weren't any eggs! You can't have breakfast ramen without boiled eggs sliced on top!

'_I must have used them all last night_' she thought. Guiltily, she took a few coins from Gama-chan and left a note for her boyfriend, consoling herself that she would pay him back, even if the eggs were for _his_ breakfast. She smiled and blushed slightly as she wrote the last part, then rushed out the door.

.

Naruto exited the shower to the smell of ramen cooking. He followed his nose into the kitchen where a half done pot of ramen was on a slow boil on the stove. '_Hinata must have left it there to go get something_' he thought. It was confirmed when he saw the note on the bench.

Dear Naruto-kun

I have gone to get some eggs. Sorry I had to borrow some money!

Love from Hinata H.

XOXO

Naruto grinned. He could even see her cuteness in her handwriting and the way she wrote the note, and could imagine her blushing as she wrote the last part. Kiss Cuddle Kiss Cuddle.

'_I'll have to take her up on that when she gets back_' he thought mischievously, making the mental note. However, plans never go according to. He heard a loud explosion come from the market district, not to far from his house. He instantly got changed and leaped out the window onto his balcony, then jumped from there to the roof, using them as pathways was a lot more open than the street.

'_Is the village under attack?_' he panicked. '_That can't be happening again! Not so soon after Pain!_'

.

Hinata had walked happily into the store, feeling on top of the world as she bought a tray of eggs. She was with Naruto-kun! She felt like nothing could bring her down now. The eggs were immediately forgotten as she stepped out of the store though. They fell from her shaking fingers, smashing on the pavement below.

Before her stood a group of five fellow Hyuuga branch members, all in battle stances and with menacing looks on their faces. "Hinata Hyuuga, we have been sent to bring you back to the compound." The one in the middle stated coldly, he was obviously the leader. "If you don't come willingly, and don't allow us to take you by force, we have authorization to use lethal force to bring you back in a body bag. What's your choice, you return for torture, or a burial?" he sneered out that last part.

Hinata was speechless. She thought she would be safe for at least another day, she had never expected _this_ so soon! She was glad to see that Ko-kun, her personal caregiver when she was a main house member and someone that had become a dear friend to her, wasn't among the group. He must have wanted nothing to do with the execution of a fellow Hyuuga.

She could tell that these men _wanted_ her to fight back, just for the excuse to be able to be the ones who killed the 'Hyuuga shame.' She resolved herself. Oh yes, she would fight back. But they would not take her down so easily.

"I won't go back" she whispered in defiance, looking the leader directly in the eye, something unheard of by the other Hyuuga in the clan for Hinata to do. It didn't break through the leaders idiotic over confidence though.

"So be it" he smirked, the others preparing to attack. Though she had resolved herself to do it, Hinata was still hesitant to fight back. These were her fellow clansmen, and while they had done nothing but hurt her, practically disowned her, she hated the idea of hurting them.

That was until the leader went one step to far in his taunts. "You and the demon boy will be punished for your disgraceful actions." He continued.

This instantly sparked Hinata's anger, lighting it up like a pyre. "What? D, Demon boy!" she knew _exactly_ who he was talking about. Strength came flooding into her. "Naruto-kun is not a demon!" she screamed out in defiance, momentarily taking aback her enemy, they had never seen this side of the shy 'failure' before. "He's the Hero of the Hidden Leaf Village!" she finished by shouting out in her shrill voice the title that was on every ones lips.

They couldn't deny it, he was loved now, and she wouldn't stand for people still saying stuff like that about him.

The man smirked. "Heh. Not to us. You disgraced him. Because of you, now he's back to what he always was in our minds. A demon, a monster, a freak of nature!"

Even more rage boiled up in Hinata at this, an unfamiliar emotion to be directed at a branch member. She had always felt so sorry for them, that they were forced into slavery for the main house. Even now that she herself was one, she pitied them. She couldn't help it, they had never known the freedom outside of the curse seal. Not that she had been very free under her father's strict law, but it was a lot better than the entrapments of the curse mark.

Anger was a wholly unfamiliar emotion in her at all. Only in the most dire circumstances, usually only when Naruto was involved, did anger heat her up like this. Now his reputation was in danger, and that was almost as bad. She _would_ defend him!

Hinata, with fluid grace, slipped into her gentle fist stance. Her right-hand palm face down by her hip, held slightly out and perpendicular, her left arm straight out front, tilted a little to the right in order to protect her whole body. Both palms bristled with hidden power. Her feet shifted also, coming together, her back foot up on the ball of her foot, her right foot pointing at the enemy.

"Naruto's a hero!" she repeated in her soft voice, rich with rage. "I won't let you say bad things about him! And I won't leave him either!" She stood in stoic defiance before the five shinobi, ready for their attack.

They charged as a single unit, but she leapt away, getting her back away from the store front so she always had a way to retreat. Quickly, she activated her kekkei genkai as they now surrounded her in the more open space.

'_So many opponents_' she thought bleakly, seeing each chakra system. They were no joke, she could see they were all powerful ninja. She remembered Naruto, standing alone in the crater that had once been her village, against three Pain bodies. They were all much stronger than these ninja. And Naruto had won! She knew she could never be as strong as Naruto, but that didn't change the fact that she could always try. '_But I won't give up, for Naruto's sake!_'

They all charged her again at the same time, though this one they were coming in every direction. This time though, they seriously underestimated her.

"Heavenly Spin!" Hinata shouted, expelling huge amounts of chakra from her palms and spinning on the balls of her feet. This was the typical high level Hyuuga defensive technique to deflect multiple opponents, and they had fell right into it in their obnoxiousness. They went flying back, completely caught off guard. Hinata slowed her rotation, her long dark hair drifting slowly back into place against the aftermaths of chakra littering the air.

"Damn" the leader swore as they slowly recovered, glad the girl was not pursuing them while they were down. She would regret it. '_She's not as weak as we were lead to believe. I didn't think she would know that technique_.'

Speaking up, he ordered his men. "Two at a time!" he shouted "The rest, be ready to take her out if you see any openings!" His men nodded and two men split away, charging the rogue. The other set of two backed them up with a barrage of kunai, and the leader watched, carefully analyzing her every move.

Hinata cheered inwardly. If they only attacked in two's it was a lot better odds. She couldn't perform a lot of heavenly spins, they exhausted massive amounts of chakra, and so by the enemy choosing to avoid her doing this, they were saving her endurance.

Before the two men reached her she performed her Protective Eight Trigrams, 64 Palms. She easily hit the multiple kunai and shuriken away before the men even reached her, at the same time making sure she avoided hitting the actual flesh and blood enemies approaching with her sharpened chakra threads. She had seen its effect on direct contact with people before, and had no wish to see that gruesome effectiveness on her own clan members.

As the kunai and shuriken dropped harmlessly to the ground, bent and split from her defensive attack, she jumped in to meet the charging duo before the others could pin her down with more projectiles. As long as she stayed in close combat with these two, even with the precision of the Byakugan they couldn't attack her without fear of hitting their allies.

However, her foes had no such admonitions. She saw a kunai thrown straight at her, only for one of the two up close jump in front of her to intercept her. Quick as a cat, she whipped a chakra thread around behind him, cutting the misthrown kunai out of the air before it punctured his head.

Unfortunately, this left her open for his attack, and she painfully took a chakra blow to the side. She staggered back a bit, then desperately ducked under another strike to her head. She immediately had to swivel around the other branch member's strike towards her heart, him missing by only inches so that she still felt the burn of his chakra as it swept past. They were going for kill shots.

She retaliated such cold regard for a human by ramming two fingers up into one members gut, pulsing chakra into his internals. He coughed up blood and dropped to the ground, but that strike made her left side partially open to his comrade. He took advantage of this and scored a glancing blow on her ducking shoulder blade before jumping away.

She had no time to recover, more kunai and another duo were already approaching. She gritted her teeth and focused her chakra into her fists, clenched by her sides. She had trained this technique extensively ever since its failure against Pain. Now, it was time to use it again.

Activating it, her eyebrow twitched involuntarily, as it did every time, she shouted "Gentle Step: Twin Lion Fist!"

The two lion heads erupted into life around her hands, chakra surging out and wavering around her. The branch members flinched visibly when they saw the deadly chakra pulsing around her fists. This was one of the most advanced techniques of the traditional Hyuuga, none of this generation had utilized it. It required a modified play on the typical Hyuuga battle form, needing intense chakra control, endurance, and flexibility. These Hinata excelled at, and so it was the perfect jutsu for her. The lion heads used both taijutsu and ninjustu to utterly destroy its opponents.

Still, being brave men on a mission, facing a death penalty if they came back a failure, they advanced. But, were way to slow. Hinata was no longer being hesitant or playing nice. If she wanted to survive this, she would have to be the one to act. Their split second moment of hesitation cost them many broken bones.

Hinata was between the approaching pair instantly, using each arm for each member of the duo. She punched them both in the gut simultaneously with the lion heads. They exploded on impact, tearing apart their enemies chakra system. The concussion sent them both at breakneck speed through the nearest buildings wall. They hit just as simultaneously as they were hit, coming to rest with an explosion of bricks and debris which thundered over the village. _This_ was what Naruto had heard.

Hinata stood amongst the shower of bricks, and turned towards her two remaining enemies, one the captain and the other who had been in the original duo. His partner half sat, half lay on the ground, still occasionally coughing up blood, out of the fight.

The lion heads slowly rematerialized around Hinata's clenched fingers. "Leave here" she said, trying her best to sound menacing. She didn't realize how effective it was. "I don't want to hurt my clan anymore than I have to."

The leader grimaced. She had already taken out three of his men with only herself taking a tiny blow to her shoulder and a moderate hit to her side. And through his byakugan he could see it hadn't done a lot, there was a tiny bit of interference in the flow of chakra going to one of her lion heads, but she was purposely directing it through different paths than the few small points blocked off. She really did have excellent chakra control, he had to admit.

He was actually thinking of taking her advice, at least he could tell the elders someone had interfered or something else happened so they had to leave before they were caught, and maybe the elders would spare him. This girl, however, looked like she was giving them one last chance at redemption. After they blew that off, there was no going back.

He opened his mouth to agree, but caught sight a faint movement on the rooftop of the building behind her. Interestingly, it was exactly where the pinpoint of her blind spot was. He smirked when he saw who it was. She was finished.

The traditional white robes, the obviously arrogant bearing, even from this distance. No doubt about it. Hiashi Hyuuga; the leader of the Hyuuga clan, but more importantly at the moment, a main house member, and so capable of manipulating caged bird seals.

Hinata looked confused at his grin. '_What is he up to?_' she thought.

Her answer bloomed in her forehead. The now familiar flower of agony and despair erupted from the seal. Pain jolted throughout her body, turning her private, final sanctuary, the only one that a person can truly fall back on, her own body and mind, into a sea of pain.

She fell to her knees; the lion heads snuffed out, holding her head in shaking hands. Blood already started to leak from her ears and nose. He was using the full capacity of the seal. She could feel it; he was going to kill her.

She squeezed her eyes shut against the pain, picturing her idol. '_I'll never give up_'. His voice echoed through her head. "Naruto" she gasped in a whisper, her voice choked with tears. "I won't give up, even through this!"

Hinata struggled back against the pain, letting it wash through her body to take the focus off her head so she could begin to think slightly more clearly. Tears tainted with blood fell from her closed eyes as they too started bleeding from the pressure. Shakily, inch by inch, she started to push herself to her feet.

Both main and branch enemies eyes widened in surprise, and for the branch members, awe as well. They had never experienced such a degree of the pain threshold from the seal, never enough to make there eyes, nose and ears bleed. And she was actually resisting it! It defied logic.

'_What willpower_' the captain thought in undisguised awe.

Hiashi gritted his teeth. "Die!" he screamed insanely, channeling all his power into the seal,

Somehow, though she hadn't thought it possible, the pain got worse for Hinata. Her body spasmed, on the verge of collapse again.

"No!" she growled. Through sheer, unbridled willpower, she regained her feet in a titanic struggle. Standing there in the centre of the market square, alone and shaking uncontrollably in pain, she turned to face her father.

Standing above her, he looked a vengeful god come to strike down his wayward follower. To bring his retribution, on his own daughter. Only he didn't see her that way anymore, through his madness he only saw an item for his hatred to latch onto.

"Father" she whispered. It carried across the silence in the square. The crowds had edged back from the scene awhile ago, and now remained silent for the obviously monumental struggle going on before them, even though the physical aspects were invisible to their eye. However, the emotional war was clear to anyone and everyone. Life as a civilian in a ninja village sure was interesting.

Hinata struggled with the words under the weight of pain. "How could you do this?" her sincere plea cut through Hiashi's heart, straight through the madness, sharper than her eight trigrams technique would have.

But it was too late; the captain of the assassination squad was already moving towards Hinata's exposed back. Her byakugan had receded when the curse seal was activated, so she had no forewarning. He struck solidly with no resistance or inaccuracy, his blow true.

Chakra pulsed through her heart, rupturing the blood cells. A huge amount of this blood forced its way up and burst from between her soft pink lips, spraying forth as her back arched under the force of the blow. Visible to all, the chakra continued its way through her body, shooting out her chest. His blow had gone straight through her, more deadly than being impaled by any sword.

Hiashi closed his eyes in grief, the madness leaping back as he saw his daughter murdered before his very eyes. He turned slowly away as her face fell into the cold, uncaring dirt. All was silent in the square.

Hinata's wide eyes witnessed only the rough ground a few inches from her face. She could feel her life ebbing away. All she cared, though, was that she would die here, alone, uncared, un-mourned, and would never see Naruto again.

.

Naruto arrived just as the man struck an unresisting Hinata full in the back. He saw the chakra erupt from between her breasts, saw the blood flower out from her mouth, and saw her fall unmoving to the ground.

Then he was bowling through the crowd to get to her, as he had jumped off the roof at the entrance to the marketplace. It seemed he was swimming through an ocean of lead, his movements one second too slow. He felt he would never get there in time.

Vaguely, he noticed a swath of pink hair in the crowd from the corner of his eye. "Sakura! Get Tsunade!" he screamed his desperate plea. He finally broke through of the crowd of silent watchers, and sprinted to his love.

Hinata heard the rushing footsteps. As her vision flickered she saw black boots in her field of vision. Naruto's boots. Hope swelled in her broken chest as she was gently rolled over and found herself looking up into a sky of beautiful blue.

It wasn't the sky, it was Naruto's eyes, not inches from hers. They dripped tears into her own twitching lavender eyes.

"Hinata" she heard him whisper as she blacked out for an instant, only to regain some consciousness a second later. It was like blinking, only she was trying with every ounce of energy she had left to keep them open. It killed her over and over again, hearing the pain of that one word that came from his mouth. She didn't want to put him through that much pain.

"Na, N, Nar, Na" she couldn't say his name, she couldn't even get enough breath for more than one syllable. Hinata started panicking. This was the last time she would ever see him, and she couldn't even tell him how much she loved him. She didn't want to leave him, didn't want him to go through so much pain seeing her die.

She searched for comfort in the familiar lines of his face. She could feel death approaching now, creeping over her, slowly infecting her limbs, ready to claim her laboring heart. She could do nothing to resist it. She couldn't find her determination. All she wanted was one last, heart warming kiss. She had never longed for sex, for marriage, for children. She had _wanted_ all those things, but she had only longed for one. Naruto's love. Love. She had finally found it, and now wanted just one last reminder, one last taste of that love.

Naruto saw the unspoken plea in her watery eyes. He remembered all the torture and degradation she had put up with all her life from her family. Her life had been full of sadness, and now, he wanted to bring at least some happiness to her before the end came. He leant down to her lips, her breath barely coming, and pressed his to hers.

Hinata's eyes sank closed as she felt his tender kiss. She felt every emotion racing through Naruto at that single moment. His hopes. His dreams. Were all for her. It was all revealed to her in the desperation of that kiss, Naruto wanted life with her. He would not have it any other way. She could feel how deeply he really felt for her, how much he really _loved_ her. That he would die if she died.

_That _was what gave her back her determination. '_I will not die!_' she screamed at herself, banishing the darkness creeping across her mind, ripping out those insinuating tendrils of death. He loved her, and would die for her. She could feel it, and now, she would _live_ for him. She would _not_ have him die for her.

Naruto saw the fierce determination return to his loves eyes. "Hold on Hinata. Tsunade's coming" he whispered, choking on his own words. "You can do it Hinata, don't give up, don't _ever_ give up."

The twitch of her lips was all he needed to see she was trying to smile to him in reassurance, trying to tell him everything would be ok, that she wasn't about to go anywhere. He knew her that well, he could tell all this just from that infinitesimal twitch of her lips.

He felt that reassurance, and nodded to acknowledge her, but it couldn't outweigh his worry for her. No matter how strong you are, if your heart is bleeding internally there is only a matter of time you can cling to life. He kissed her again as they desperately hoped, waiting for the medic, the legendary sanin. He breathed life into her with his kisses, hoping against hope she would live. For _him_…

.

"_It's getting harder to stay awake_

_And my strength is fading fast_

_You breathe into me at last_."

.

Tsunade arrived just in time to keep Hinata's laboring heart beating. After hours healing from both Tsunade and Sakura, they had stabilized the Hyuuga girl enough so that she could be moved off the street and emitted to the hospital.

The other Hyuuga had picked up their comrades and skulked away when Naruto arrived, not wanting to trigger the demon boy's grief into wrath. He went with the now peacefully unconscious Hinata and stayed by her bedside all night. He was not about to let her go, he would stay there forever for her.

However, in the morning Naruto had an idea. Making sure Hinata wasn't about to wake up, and getting both Kiba and Shino to look after her, he rushed to the Hyuuga compound to pick up a few things.

With the help of Neji, who was the only Hyuuga he knew who was on her side, he snuck through the estate to her now tiny room. It had been considerably downgraded since she was caged.

She didn't have a lot, Hyuuga were not renowned for their luxuries, and slaves were even less. But he did have to smile when he saw the collection of photos on her dresser.

The first was of her as a little baby, being held lovingly in her passed Mother's hands. The next was Hinata at five, in a cute little lavender jacket, not too different from the one she wore now. She was holding the hand of a stern faced Hiashi. The next frame jumped forward to when Hinata was twelve. It showed an extremely happy, chibi like Hinata, eyes closed in glee, presumably when she received her Hitai Ate against all the expectations of her clan. The second to last photo was of her in her full ninja attire, standing defensively before the prone Naruto, when she had defended him from Pain. He had no idea how that photo was taken, but it seemed it was the final step in her life's story so far, her story to self confidence.

The last large photo was of the Konoha 12, all of Hinata's friends, with a small picture of Sasuke stuck in the side as well. She never left anyone out. There were also other numerous smaller photos of her with her friends; well, blushing trying to hide from the camera with her friends. Family photos were scattered here and there also.

Naruto, knowing she still loved them, took them all, but kept the first five aside, deciding about a special place in Hinata's hospital room to place them. He then collected the rest of her things, which had been taken and brought back to the compound when she was emitted to hospital.

He couldn't help but laugh in delight when, with a red face searching through her drawers for some clean underwear, he found multiple pictures of him.

'_Ah Hinata, your so cute!_' he thought to himself.

When he got back to her hospital room, the first thing he did was take out her Hitai Ate and placed it in her hand. It had been removed when she was emitted to the ward, along with most of her other things. She was now just in a hospital gown. He wrapped her fingers around it, and then wrapped his own around hers.

He thought he felt a slight twitch in her hand in response as she felt the familiar, cold metal that meant so much for a ninja. As he felt this tiny response; of her hand trying to grab onto it, his hopes soared. She was still there.

.

Hinata's eyes slowly opened. She was outside, under a deep blue sky. It was strange though; there were tan swaths to it and two strange black holes floating up there. And, it seemed only inches from her. She felt as if she could almost touch it. She reached up to do so, but found she couldn't move her arm.

"Where am I?" she wondered out loud, her soft voice rough from days of unconsciousness.

"Hinata!" Naruto's voice came excitedly. "You're in the hospital." His reply drifted to her from that strange blue sky, which lowered even further until it was almost touching her face. She panicked slightly, thinking it was going to crush her. But it stopped just before it reached her, and at that moment soft lips connected to hers.

'_Naruto?_' she thought.

He drew back from the short, tender welcome back kiss. "How you doing?" he said sincerely, a hint of mischievousness in his eyes.

Hinata gasped in surprise when the sky drew back to reveal Naruto's sparkling blue eyes, set in the confines of his handsome face. She slowly sat up, now becoming aware of her surroundings, getting her bearings. She was in a not so bleak looking hospital room, everywhere there were splashes of color.

She started remembering all the events that lead up to her being situated in a hospital. "H,How long have I been out?" she wondered.

"Two days" Naruto said nonchalantly, surprising her again that she had thought it out loud. The splashes of color in the room began resolving into photos. There were photos everywhere of her, her and her friends, her and, blush, Naruto-kun.

He had got every single photo from her room at home; which she hadn't seen for days, and had obviously sourced even more from her friends. She saw five particularly special, framed photos, on the wall by her bedside. Looking up at them, part of her life story, she got tears in her eyes at how thoughtful Naruto was.

He spoke now. "The Hyuuga, they've been trying for days to get in here, to 'see if you're alright' so they can take you 'home'. To the slave house. I wouldn't let them though, I know why they wanted you."

Hinata gasped in surprise, not at the Hyuuga wanting her, which was obvious, but at something else. "You, you were here the whole time? Two days?"

He grinned sheepishly. "Yea, mostly, except for when I went to get your stuff, that's when Kiba, Akamaru, and Shino looked after you, and they've been dropping in here constantly throughout the day's too."

"Thank you." She said, moved by his loving care and dedication.

"But" Naruto said, his voice sad. "There's something I need to ask you." He took a deep breath. "I, I want you to consider going back, to the Hyuuga."

Hinata was too shocked to speak. He wanted her to go back, to that pure pain and torture? To that _hell_?

Before tears could start falling, Naruto rushed through his explanation. "I don't want you risking your life anymore! They tried to _kill_ you! I don't want you to die because of me! If you go back, they will hurt you, and it will kill me inside. But at least you will live! If you stay with me, they will keep trying to kill you! I can't stand putting you in that kind of danger. If they succeeded, I wouldn't be able to live with myself. I'd die, just to be with you in the afterlife. But that's not the point; I don't want _you_ to die!"

"Naruto" Hinata stopped him with a single word, her resolve growing alongside her determination. "I won't go back. I _am_ finally alive. Not just living, but _alive._ Everything seems sweeter when I'm with you." She giggled a little. "Its not just ramen, it's _everything_. Everything is better! At the Hyuuga estate, there was nothing but bleak pain. Here with you, _this_ is heaven. _This_ is everything I ever wanted. _You_ are everything I ever wanted. And I'm staying with you, no matter what the Hyuuga try. _This is my life!_ I won't let them destroy it for me!" she finished her speech shouting out her defiance.

Naruto was proud of her, her defiant declaration; without a single stutter, had changed his mind. He smiled warmly. "Don't worry, I wont let them hurt you anymore. We'll be together forever. We'll get around those Hyuuga bastards, and then, we'll _live_."

.

"I'm awake, I'm alive

Now I know what I believe inside

Now, it's my time

I'll do what I want 'cause this is my life."

.

Suddenly, the door bursts open and a Hyuuga elder appeared in the room. Naruto's growl instantly turned feral. "Get outta here!" he roared. "_Leave_, she's not going with you! LEAVE! Before I kill you!"

The man ignored him. "Hinata, come with me" he said calmly to the girl in the bed. "You know where you belong, with your one and _only_ clan."

Naruto exploded again before Hinata had a chance to speak. "Why the hell would she want to go back there! To be executed! Tortured? What the hell! How can you be dumb enough to think she will _ever_ come back!"

The elder merely smirked. "Kyuubi, who are you to decide what she wants. I am asking Hinata; you do not decide for her, you do not own her."

Naruto growled even more at the hypocritical speech of _not_ owning her. "Bullshit, neither do you" he muttered under his breath, but otherwise kept silent. It was Hinata's decision. Little did he know the elder was crafting his chakra into her seal, subtly tracing pain throughout her mind, just reminding her what he could do.

But, to his surprise, the look of defiance never left her eyes. The hospital room filled with the rich softness of her voice, tones of pain, sadness, joy and determination laced through it.

"I'll never go back there" she raised her soft voice in defiance, even as he increased the pain. "This _is_ my choice, and I won't back down! You can use the seal all you want to control me, but I won't give up. This is my life! I'll do what I want, I'll be with whoever I want, and you cannot stop me!" Naruto was again proud to hear his girlfriend wording such a strong conviction for her _own_ life.

The elder growled this time and started increasing the pain threshold, being blissfully unaware of Hinata's capability to endure pain. She had dealt with so much emotional and physical pain all her life, she had a huge capacity for it.

He was also unaware of the foot coming towards his head, being lead by an irate Naruto. "There's your answer jerk, now get out!" he shouted as he booted the Hyuuga out the room via the still open door he had come in through. Naruto slammed it behind the tousled form of the elder and turned back to his girlfriend.

A grin stretched across his face. "I'm so proud of you Hinata-chan! Your nindo's just like mine"

.

"(Here) _Right Here_ (Right Now) _Right Now_

_Stand my ground and never back down_

I know what I believe inside

I'm awake and I'm alive."

.

Hikotu, the Hyuuga elder sent to apprehend their runaway branch member, walked slowly down the corridor. He produced a radio from within the deep pockets of his robes and quickly contacted his clan leader.

"Hiashi-sama, even after all those threats she's not going to come back peacefully. We will just have to keep sending branch members to capture or kill her." He said coldly.

He heard a muffled growl on the other end of the line. The voice that came across was laced with madness; unknown to his clan Hiashi had sunk lower into insanity seeing his daughter murdered before his very eyes, just as he was coming back from the edge. It was irrelevant that she had actually survived, and he was now trying to kill her again. Just seeing her and thinking her dead had made the madness unhinge his mind again.

"Very well, you will follow up on these threats." Hiashi's cold voice came in response. "Go in there now and kill her."

Hikotu stiffened, making a slight choking sound. "B,but, Hiashi-sama, the Kyuubi's in there, that's a death wish!" he stuttered in fear, not so tuff now that he was being put directly in the line of fire.

"Think of it as a sacrifice for the good of the Hyuuga clan. You will be doing us a service for once, instead of just rambling away on my advisory council." Hiashi said, and with that emotionless condemnation, his voice turned even more chillingly cold. "Now do it" he hissed. "Or you will be cursed with far worse if you return here a failure."

Hikotu gulped, thinking about what he could be 'cursed' with. "Y,yes Hiashi-sama." He replied, then pocketed the radio. He slowly turned back and started walking down the corridor, back towards certain death.

.

The door opened suddenly and Naruto growled again, sick of the interruptions. He turned only to see an empty doorway and a blur go past him. He caught a glimpse of a palm glowing with chakra, heading directly towards the prone form of Hinata.

"Nooo!" she started to shout. Terror welled up within him as the palm full of deadly intent descended on his beloved. He couldn't move fast enough to stop it.

But Hinata could. Her hand whipped out from under the covers, grabbing the elder's wrist before he could stop her already fragile heart. Hikotu stared in shock at her Byakugan filled eyes, staring right into him. She sent a large jolt of chakra into his arm, numbing the entire appendage and shutting off most of the chakra points in the limb, rendering it useless.

Before Naruto could do anything too drastic, she reached up. Gently, she tapped the stunned elder's neck, sending a small lace of chakra into the nerve which effectively knocked him unconscious. He slumped across her, seconds before Naruto roughly yanked him off her and threw the already unconscious 'revered elder' into the wall. Well, that was before he realized he was already unconscious, and not leaning over Hinata trying to do something dirty.

"Naruto-kun, could you please get a doctor or something?" Hinata said quietly, strangely calm in the near death experience. She was getting all too used to them lately.

"What! Did he hit you?" Naruto asked in concern. "No, no, it's for him" Hinata reassured, pointing at the prone form stuck to the wall.

Naruto sighed. "Yea, I understand" and walked out of the room in search of a doctor. Despite what he had just said, he still struggled to believe Hinata's capacity for kindness.

.

Hinata slowly rose from her hospital bed, feeling a lot better after days of lying there resting. She gently picked up the unconscious elder and lay him down amidst the now unoccupied sheets. He had been misled by the teachings of the clan, and she would not judge him because of others.

She found some of her ninja clothes in the bedside drawers and changed into them, then left the hospital, Naruto falling in step beside her with a confused look on his face as she swept past him. "What are you thinking?" he asked suspiciously, knowing something was up with the normally shy, unsure girl.

"We're going home Naruto-kun" she said calmly, but continued in her head. '_But then I have something I have to do. I'm sorry Naruto-kun, but you can't come with me._' They stayed in silence until they reached Naruto's house, thankfully without anymore run-ins with Hyuuga. Once inside however, everything turned to hell for Naruto.

Hinata turned to him with an odd look on her face. "Naruto-kun, I'm going back" she said, stunning him into further shocked silence. She still stood in the doorway, but instead of looking at the ground in depression, all vulnerable like she normally would be; she was looking straight back into his eyes. Her expression was that of fierce determination, showing in her lavender eyes and every inch of her face.

"I need to change them" she whispered. "Will you trust that I'll come home?"

Naruto was lost in the determination of her eyes, he had never seen anything like it before. It was stronger even than when she had fought to defend him against Pain. He knew she was going to do something about the Hyuuga, but he also knew she wasn't going to tell him. It was a matter of trust, his final faith. The inner struggle raged within him until he finally summoned up the courage to utter a single syllable.

"Yes" he whispered. Hinata smiled gently.

She leant forward. "Thank you, Naruto-kun, for trusting me. And believing in me. I'm going to take this war to _them_." She whispered in his ear. She shifted her head, now nuzzled against his face, until their lips touched.

Naruto's eyes widened even further. This was the first time Hinata had ever actually initiated a kiss. She had indicated she had wanted one before, but never given one. It was another wonder altogether, feeling _her_ press her lips now hard against him, his slow to react in shock.

Their kiss became passionate, both a goodbye and a promise to come back, of there to be more. Then. She was gone. Naruto stood staring at the empty doorway as the door swung softly closed. He continued to stare at the door, fists clenched and teeth gritted, resisting the urge to pursue her, to stop her, to bring her back to the safety of his arms. He stood there all afternoon as he waited for his love to return. He knew, this was something she needed to do alone, and he would not interfere, no matter how much it killed him inside knowing she was walking into the heart of danger.

.

"I'm at war with the world

'Cause I ain't never gonna sell my soul.

I've already made up my mind

No matter what I can't be bought or sold."

.

Lines of caged Hyuuga met her at the gates of her old prison, all in their shared clan fighting stance. Someone must have alerted the clan of her approach, but nothing would stop Hinata. This was too important.

"I'm back to see my _Father_" she said, stressing the last word, yet her tone was cold and emotionless, like the 'perfect Hyuuga.' A man that looked to be a captain grudgingly let her through, though not without an escort of ten men.

She was glad to see one of them was Ko, her ex-personal guardian and caregiver. He wasn't looking at her with the scorn for a traitor like the rest of the men, but a twinkle of sympathy was in his white eyes. She gave him a small smile, to show him everything was planned.

Even better, they came across Neji on the way, who stopped his training immediately when he saw who was in the centre of the group. He offered to help with the escort, and being an important and valued jonin of the clan, was accepted in good faith.

'_Two allies_' Hinata thought, considering her choices. '_At least it's better than nothing_.' She reassured herself.

"Hiashi-sama, Hinata has returned" the captain announced when they arrived in the office of the clan head. However, this resulted in the whole procession, minus one, drop to their knees from the pain of the curse seal. Hiashi was _not_ in a good mood.

Seeing one still upright, and that she was the object of his frustration, standing right within his own office in cold defiance, didn't help his anger. He increased the pain till it was breaking the threshold, but still she didn't even flinch. Through sheer will alone Hinata kept on her feet, as around her feet her fellow branch members screamed their lungs out.

"Hiashi-sama, please stop this, your hurting your loyal slaves." She said emotionlessly, hiding her pain and her guilt for bringing this upon Ko and Neji behind a mask of indifference.

Despite her will, her eyebrow did start twitching under the weight of pain, and one leg quivered as he somehow increased it. It seemed there was no limit to the suffering the curse seal could bring, but little did she know Hiashi was at his maximum.

The branch members, both enemy and ally to Hinata, were all unconscious by now, so no-one witnessed the titanic struggle between father and daughter go on in the small office room. Sweat beaded on Hiashi's bare forehead as he concentrated on his daughter's branded one, pouring chakra into the curse. But no matter how much he tried, she would not buckle. Nearly exploding in fury, he finally released the pain.

The relief on Hinata's face never showed, but inside she was screaming, now with joy. "Father, I've come to open your eyes to this world." She said with a slight smile, showing him she wanted to help.

His reply was menacing. "You will be executed for coming back here and saying such blasphemy!" he shouted She flinched, not from his words, but from the insanity in his voice, as plain as sunshine to her.

Hinata's quite voice filled the room in defiance. "Father, you don't get it."

A part deep within Hiashi stirred at the sound of the gentleness and love in her voice, so long the Hyuuga compound had been devoid of such a wealth of emotion. But this small voice was drowned out by his overbearing anger.

"Shut up! Why are you calling me Father! You have not earned that privilege! You are weak, a failure, and a shame on our clan! You are PATHETIC!" his madness shouted out the harsh words, coupled with his mass of anger.

Hinata took them all in, but her reply was just as gentle as earlier. She looked around her, at the unconscious branch members. "Father. How can you be so blind?" she whispered, almost to herself. It hit him hard, the pity in her voice. Suddenly, she looked up at him again, the fierceness in her eyes rooting him to the spot.

"I'm _not_ weak!" she shouted. "And I'll prove it to you!" she issued her challenge, staring directly into his pale white eyes.

Emotions warred within Hiashi as he stared at his daughters face. The determined look there was foreign to him, but if he had bothered to actually get to know the real Hinata, he, like her friends, would have seen it often, and would be shivering with fear that she had directed it at him. Her friends had seen what she could do when that feeling came over her, they would have rather died than swapped places with the receiving end.

Hiashi gave her a stiff, forced nod, then exited the room, expecting her to follow. They swept through the estate and the summons went out to the entire household. Hinata was more than a little nervous throughout the short journey, but she quelled it under the fires of her conviction. She would help these people, her people, even if they didn't want it.

.

Finally, after what seemed a much longer walk for Hinata than it really was, they reached a small rectangle of packed dirt in the center of the compound. It doubled as an arena and training area; today it would be the former.

"You want to put a wager on this." Hiashi stated coldly. He thought he knew what she was up to. "You win, you stay with Naruto. Lose, you stay here." He said, knowing he had guessed her intentions perfectly.

The surprise was palpable when she answered in the negative. "No, this isn't for wagers Father. Whether I win or lose I will do what I want. But this, this is to finally prove something to you. This if for me and you alone, Father."

Hiashi's madness was still dominating his body, so all he muttered was an arrogant "Hmmph. Prepare yourself then."

He slipped into his gentle fist stance. Hinata glanced nervously at all the faces of the people of her clan gathered. She knew every one. She thought back to why she was here. For her father. For them. She shut her natural shyness away behind that wall of determination. Now was not the time.

Her eyebrows drew down in that set that meant she would never give up, even to the verge of death, even _over_ the verge of death, and took up her own stance, a modified version of the gentle fist posture. Hers accommodated more for her assets. Her excellent chakra control, coupled with her flexibility made her stance differ a lot from the usual stoic Hyuuga stance.

The crowd went silent as an elder came forward. "Begin!" his rusty voice filled the silent arena, and he swiped his hand dramatically in the air.

Hiashi charged forward immediately. Hinata knew he was an extremely accomplished fighter; he wasn't the head of the most prodigious clan in the village for nothing, but she could see anger clouding his judgment, just through the way he was running so recklessly towards her. Chakra began to lightly glow around her palms, matching the deeper blue of Hiashi's.

As he reached her she sidestepped, keeping her hands close to her body and ready to block the expected counterstrike. It was as predicted. In his rage, Hiashi didn't think about his opponent anticipating his attacks.

He swept around ninety degrees from where he had finished his charge in her last standing position, jabbing straight for her heart with two fingers. Her hand jerked across her body in retaliation, knocking his strike into the gap between her elbow and side. She returned her own strike, aiming at his shoulder with an open palm.

He blocked this much the same as she had his strike, and a small puff of chakra whipped into the air from their collision. His other arm, now recovered, jabbed out like a snake trying to tag her abdomen. She swiveled around it, dodging without the need to block in order to keep her hands free. With both hands free, Hinata was at an advantage as Hiashi struggled to recover one hand while the other prepared to block.

Taking full advantage of this, Hinata struck his blocking arm away, sacrificing one of her free ones. Even as he tried to dodge out of the way, she struck his shoulder with full force. Her surge of chakra swept into his system, blocking off the surrounding points in a large enough radius to cut off the chakra supply to that arm.

She smiled at his look of pure shock and outrage. Was she finally getting to him? What really got to _her_ was the crowd's reaction to her hit. A chorus of booing, hissing, degrading shouts ensued from the gathered Hyuuga, both main and branch family alike.

This was how her clan really felt? She had always thought it was just her Father and the elders who hated her, and were influencing the clan into hating her, but this revealed every ones true feelings. The truth of it was, the whole clan hated her.

As Hiashi recovered, she stood in shock, staring at the clan she loved, at what they had become. She took every insult to heart. These were not the people she remembered. These people were corrupt. Corrupted by the blasphemy of the elders, of her father, until they themselves were just as bad.

'_In my entire clan, only two people want me around_.' She thought in despair. Tears started to leak from her eyes, but she didn't bother wiping them away. '_Why am I even here?_' her desperate, despairing thoughts echoed throughout her mindscape.

.

"_When my faith is getting weak_

_And I feel like giving in_

_You breathe into me again_."

.

'_Naruto-kun_.'

That thought echoed through her head as her clans degradation washed over her.

'_Naruto-kun. He wouldn't give up, no matter what people thought of him_.' She remembered how she had left him so suddenly, shutting the door on him before she even explained herself. How could she go back to him, a failure? No. Even though these people didn't want it, she _would_ help them. She would open them up to the real world, not this cold, imaginary tomb that they had surrounded themselves with.

Hinata turned back to Hiashi, who was looking fully recovered again. She reactivated her Byakugan in preparation to fight. Her black streaked lavender eyes widened in disbelief as she viewed his chakra network. His chakra was flowing freely down _both_ arms! It was like she had never even hit him.

He answered her unspoken question with a smug smile. "The leader of the Hyuuga clan has many secret techniques up his sleeve." He explained. "Although I admit it was quite a feat to hit me, it won't do you any good. You are still too WEAK!" and with that he charged in a repeat of the first 'round.'

This time, Hinata met him head on with a charge of her own. They collided with a titanic clash of chakra, sending both royalty and slave flying back the way they came. Light chakra burns swathed both Hyuuga. Hinata was instantly back on her feet, while the older fighter rose slowly, though steadily.

'_If_ _my normal strikes don't work against him, I will have to just go bigger!_' she mentally shouted herself encouragement.

She brought her elbows hard against her sides, then raised her fists, knuckles down, perpendicular to her body. She leant forward slightly, concentrating chakra into her fisted hands. Her eyebrow twitched like it always did with this particular technique, and unknown to all but themselves, a few bandaged branch members flinched involuntarily at what they knew was to come.

This technique required _immense_ chakra control, so Hinata couldn't help the telltale twitch that gave her away to anyone who had survived her attack before. Finally, just before Hiashi reached her again, the twin lion heads burst into life around her clenched fists.

"Gentle Step: Twin Lion Fist!" she intoned, and again met Hiashi's charge, this time behind the maw of a giant chakra lion head, ready to take a bite out of her Father's chakra and simultaneously blast him back the way he came.

Hiashi, realizing the danger of the technique from when he had seen it decimate the assassination squad of branch members, desperately changed the direction of his charge. It took him just past the outside of Hinata's attack. Still, he brushed the outer edge of a chakra head, and that gave him enough of a taste to know if it hit him directly he was finished.

He eyed her warily, certain she couldn't hold up that immense chakra for more than a few seconds. Yet as he watched, panting from his exertion, the lions showed no sign of wavering or flickering out. Feeding off her chakra, and having had a taste of his, they were actually growing bigger in anticipation.

"Father, if you don't give up, I'm not sure if I can restrain myself from severely hurting you." Hinata said, reigning in the anger that the technique had stirred up.

"Ha! You expect me to give up?" Hiashi smirked. "Against you!" he started to laugh softly. There was definitely something unhinged about it, and it was uncomfortably clear to every Hyuuga present.

Hinata was saddened at hearing it. '_So this is really what's become of him?_' she thought. '_And all because of me…_' was despairingly added. She coldly pushed the guilt away. '_No Hinata._' She told herself. '_I won't be responsible for his madness. But. I __will__ bring him back!_'

She could see he was on the edge of a yawning chasm, but by his actions, she saw he hadn't been completely swallowed up yet, he hadn't fallen into that pit. He had tried, every time he had tried to kill her he had leaped downwards, but every time he failed he would find himself back, teetering on the edge. Hinata's life was the only thing keeping complete madness away. And she would make sure it stayed that way.

.

"I'm awake, I'm alive

Now I know what I believe inside

Now, it's my time

I'll do what I want 'cause this is my life.'

.

Echoing Naruto's words from that first night, she shouted. "I will beat some sense into you, Father!"

With that she charged again. The Hyuuga leader desperately maneuvered away from her strikes. Even a slight graze from a chakra head brought on a wave of pain from chakra burns. It was all he could do to dodge, let alone attack, and he couldn't keep it up forever.

Plans started formulating in his unhinged mind, and using crafty underhand techniques he began molding chakra into her seal, even as he jumped out of the way of yet another lethal strike. He wasn't the Hyuuga head for nothing; he knew every trick in the book to utilize the caged bird seal.

Hinata stumbled under the sudden flare of pain that crashed through her head. For a second, the lion heads flickered, but she ruthlessly kept them active. She ignored the pain, focused completely on her objective, and pushed on.

However, it is rare to have a fair fight with someone from a clan that hates you, and that entire clan is attendant. Others had noticed her split second slip up, including the Hyuuga elders. Simultaneously, they clapped their hands together in their favorite seal.

Hinata buckled under the weight of pain as it folded over her another five times. She couldn't form coherent thoughts, only collapse to the ground, screaming in agony as a total of six main house members put all their chakra into her caged bird seal.

The Hyuuga looked on in amusement.

Who was this pipsqueak girl to challenge their way of life. Who was she to try to defeat their honored leader.

But not all thought this. There were signs of some change among the crowd. Many a branch member had a look of disgust on their face as they watched the brutality being forced upon the girl, who had just valiantly given her all in the fight. Seeing her courage to stand up to their clan, and now seeing her groveling in the dirt, it having taken six main house members to finally take her down, they began to look at it from a different viewpoint. Now, they were starting to question.

Two specific Hyuuga, who had just arrived on the scene, having recently recovered from an ordeal with the seal of their own and joined the audience, definitely opposed what was going on. Neji and Ko quickly saw the situation, saw the five Hyuuga elders crippling the poor girl. If this went on much longer, she would die. As it was she would be lucky to wake up in two weeks without permanent brain damage. She finally blacked out, leaving many a relieved looking Hyuuga as her disturbing bloodcurdling screams died down.

Before the elders could turn unconsciousness into death, the two allies leapt in front of them. In an act of pure courage and rebellion, they closed off the chakra to the older men's hands with a few quick jabs by each branch member.

The rage on their faces was palpable, but the allies stood there ground. Neji addressed the elders before they had a chance to begin their barrage. "Do you think our clan is so weak our own leader must have the help of five elders to defeat a _branch_ member?" he accused. "I admit, she is a formidable opponent, but this was to be a fair fight, for her to prove herself to Hiashi-sama. Who are you to interrupt, against our own leaders orders!" he shouted.

One elder retaliated immediately. "She is so weak she couldn't even resist the seal!" he shouted back. Another chorused his agreement, and then smirked menacingly at Neji. "And I bet you can't either Neji. Shall we test it?"

The others snarled in agreement, and, using the special elder technique that Hiashi had utilized, they flooded their chakra pathways, effectively unblocking the tenketsu in their hands. Neji began to feel the all too familiar pain of the curse blossom in his forehead, and by the look on his face, Ko too felt the rotten flower of pain bloom in his own head.

But before it grew any worse, a cold voice interrupted. "They're right" Hiashi said, his tone brittle with anger. "It does not take six Hyuuga to defeat one. Leave them, they did the right thing, our clan is not that weak. It was _you_ five that were shaming the clan."

The elders shrunk under his glare, then the one that had first spoken up turned to Neji. "I'll be seeing you two later." He whispered, and the five elders slunk off. The two branch members shivered involuntarily at the promise to come. Still, they quickly shook it off and hurried to the prone form of Hinata, lying fragile in the dust and dirt.

.

Hiashi felt strange, the pure agony of the screams of his daughter had once again struck those cords buried deep within his heart. Seeing her lying there, looking so fragile and vulnerable; face covered in blood from the effects of the seal, and dirt; from pushing her face into it as she groveled, this too began to play those cords.

"She'll need to be hospitalized immediately to avoid any brain damage, Hiashi-sama." Neji's neutral voice brought him back to reality.

"Yes, after that she will be out for at least two weeks." Hiashi said, surprising the two brave branch members with his empathetic statement. "Very well, take her then." He continued, his voice going back to its normal coldness.

Then, to every ones immense shock, a small sound escaped Hinata's lips.

"Eh" she grunted lightly as her eyelids moved slightly. They squeezed tight before flying wide open. Blinking a few times, Hinata looked up to see three extremely shocked faces standing directly above her. "Uh, wh, what happ-ened?" she stuttered out, rubbing her head. A throbbing aftermath of pain still clung there, and her voice was soft but husky from having screamed her throat raw.

She slowly, valiantly regained her feet with much shaking and spasming limbs involved. She found herself in the center of a trio of Hyuuga. Two corners were friendly, one, not so much. All three, however, were shocked beyond words. How tough was this girl?

She turned shakily to her father, slightly unstable on her legs. Her face was determined though, and she stared him defiantly in the eye.

"We have a fight to finish" she said.

He slowly nodded, the grudging respect for his branded daughter growing by her every action. They squared off at each other again, and this time, as they fought, the crowd was in attentive silence. After that last display, they too had found at least some respect for the girl, so no longer booed when she tagged their leader, nor laughed when she was hit in return.

Hinata was noticeably slower now, but she didn't let it bring her down. She still tried with all her effort to defeat her Father. Locked in close combat, Hinata threw a roundhouse kick to Hiashi's flank. He nimbly ducked under the kick, retaliating by sending his own to sweep her legs.

Hinata came up with a plan in that instant. Now that her body was severely injured, she was no longer anywhere near as fast as him. Therefore, she had to utilize her mind and every opportunity she got if she wanted to take him down. Now was such an opportunity.

Knowing he would expect the classic hop above; which would leave her mid air and open for attack, Hinata let his kick hit her. It whipped her around so she was parallel to the ground, but midair. Her eyes locked on her fathers surprised ones as he was coming out of his duck.

Motion seemed to stop as they sank into each others eyes, one full of madness, confusion, and anger, the other full of love, kindness, empathy, but above all, fire. Almost in slow motion Hinata's right arm swept down, planting on the ground. Using this as support, she thrust out her left palm towards her Father's chest, pushing off the ground with her other arm for extra leverage.

With the force of the giant bull one of Pain's paths had summoned, her chakra hit her Father's chest. She deliberately directed it around his vitals, but it still shredded the muscles around his heart and lungs.

The leader of the Hyuuga clan was left on the ground, coughing and spluttering up globs of blood in the aftermath of her strike, unable to move.

.

"(Here) _Right Here_ (Right Now) _Right Now_

_Stand my ground and never back down_

I know what I believe inside

I'm awake and I'm alive."

.

Hinata stared down sympathetically at her father on the ground. Blood was splattered all down his robes, with the Hyuuga leader still feebly trying to retain a sense of dignity.

"You must reach this low in order to really see the world." Hinata said gently. "You brought me down to this place, but with the help of another, I woke up." She was thinking of how Naruto had saved her when she had all but given up. "I am here to help you up out of this ditch."

She smiled at him. "Without your help Father, in fact, with your direct, deliberate opposition, I still became stronger than you. _Now_ will you listen? Now that all those lies about failures and weaklings have been proven insignificant, _now _will you give me a chance? Will you give yourself a chance?"

Hiashi looked at his daughter, standing imperiously above him, yet still radiating the gentle, kind aura of an angel. He grudgingly nodded his head. Hinata smiled slightly and knelt down in the dirt beside him.

"Father, you always labeled me weak, pathetic, a failure, because you never knew any better." She said kindly. "You were raised to be the arrogant man you are today. While my mum was around, she suppressed that side of you. But… but, when she passed, something tripped in you, didn't it, father?" she got a blank stare in return, as much as she had expected.

He wasn't yelling, just listening submissively. This was what she had hoped for. Hinata continued. "It killed the side Mum had tried so hard to create, the kind, loving Father I remember from my childhood. The Father who sang me to sleep at night. After she went, that side of you went with her. So there was nothing left to hold back the 'perfect Hyuuga' which had been instilled on you. The cold, arrogant, merciless Hiashi known today. I understand why you are like this, and it has in turn corrupted our entire clan. The Hyuuga are no longer known for their compassion, for their fierce desire to protect their comrades, or even for their fighting prowess. You know how the Hyuuga are seen these days. Cold. Emotionless. Arrogant. This is what you have become, and it is wrong."

She softly cradled his head in her hands as she looked down into his eyes. "I am here to bring you back, _Dad._"

That single syllable rang throughout the silence in the arena. Dad. It had significance to both of them. She hadn't called him that ever since her Mother had died and his old personality passed. That word alone, if not for all her actions that afternoon and her speech, rekindled something in Hiashi's heart, and brought him back from the razor edge of insanity.

"Hinata?" he whispered, his muscles burning, broken as they contracted around his lungs to force out the words. "I'm sorry."

.

"Waking up, waking up

Waking up, waking up

Waking up, waking up

Waking up, waking up in the dark."

.

The arena rang with silence, the multitudes of Hyuuga gathered to stunned to speak. Every man and woman there was reconsidering their values, following the lead of their clan head. One by one, every Hyuuga present, branch and main family alike, slave and honored elder, sank to their knees in a bow to the one girl left standing.

Through her sincere determination, she had showm them all what it was possible to be, against all the odds. They could be whoever they wanted, like this girl was.

Hinata looked around at all the bowed heads, and wished only one thing. She wished Naruto had seen her on this day. He would have been proud.

Hiashi finally came out of his all fours bow, and started struggling to his feet. Hinata was instantly beside him, helping the clan leader up out of the dirt. "Y,you need to get to a hospital" she said concernedly, hearing his labored breathing. She started to feel distressed at the condition she had put her own Dad in.

"I'm … fine." Hiashi grinded out, then, gritting his teeth, stood unaided. Forcing the pain back, he spoke clear and confident. He turned to his daughter as he began.

"Hinata _Hyuuga_, my precious eldest daughter, I have decided to retire my post as leader of the Hyuuga Clan. You, being my eldest daughter and the _chosen_ heir, are now the leader of the Hyuuga Clan." He said imperiously, and then his face crinkled into a smile that had not been seen in years. "Welcome back" he grinned.

The arena erupted in applause, the previously stoic Hyuuga now leaping about, shouting and hooting, free from the shackles of what they had been forced to be. A beaming smile brightened Hinata's features.

"Thank you Dad!" she said excitedly with a soft hug, careful not to disrupt his injuries. "Now we really need to get you to the hospital" she admonished cheekily, feeling a bit confident from the happy situation.

With that, and the help of a grinning Neji and Ko, they carried Hiashi to Konoha's hospital, where the top medics would bring the former clan head back to as good as new.

.

"I can feel you in my sleep

In your arms I feel you breathe into me

Forever hold this heart that I will give to you

Forever I will live for you."

.

The door slowly swung inward, revealing a battered, bruised, but completely ecstatic Hinata.

Naruto was still rooted in place; he had been staring at the door for hours, contemplating his life with the angel that was Hinata. He spoke that name now as she stood in the doorway, lost in his watery gaze. His vision blurred, so he wrapped her in his arms, not wanting her to see his tears.

"I thought you were going to your death there." He admitted, his voice choked with happy tears.

Hinata nuzzled her head into the curve between his shoulder and neck, taking in his familiar scent. "I wouldn't die there." She said into his collarbone. "I won't die for them, for me. No. Because I'll _live_ for you, Naruto-kun." She said gently.

A sincere smile stretched Naruto's mouth. Gently pushing her off his shoulder, he leant in, tenderly kissing her lips. She sank into it, moaning softly in pure bliss.

"Don't worry Hinata-chan, I'll do the same for you" he whispered as they paused momentarily for breath, before joining lips again.

Repeating that fateful night a few days ago, they slowly went arm in arm to the bedroom. It was fairly dark by now, and they sank into the bed, pulling up the covers over them to keep warm. Naruto then commenced in paying her back all the kisses and cuddles she left in her note, until finally exhaustion overtook them and they fell asleep, lips still pressed together, sharing each others breath of life all throughout the night.

.

"I'm awake, I'm alive

Now I know what I believe inside

Now, it's my time

I'll do what I want 'cause this is my life."

.

"Oh, d,did I tell you I'm the leader of the Hyuuga clan now?" Hinata mentioned as they sat at Naruto's table, eating breakfast ramen and cinnamon buns again, respectively.

"Whaaaat!" Naruto almost choked on his half mouthful of ramen, instead opting to spit it back into the plate in surprise.

Hinata giggled at the look on his face, noodles still dangling halfway out his gawking mouth. Her timing had been perfect! '_Revenge!_' she crowed inwardly in payback for him calling her 'Hinata-chan' just as she was swallowing the Naruto's infamous ramen, making her choke and run to the sink to be saved. "Well, the official ceremony is this afternoon, but Dad announced it to the clan yesterday." She said cheerily.

"Dad! That jerk? Again, Whaaaat!" Naruto couldn't form any more coherent response. "What did you _do_ yesterday?" he finally managed.

Hinata smiled at his confusion, but quickly cleared it up, explaining how she had 'beat some sense' into her Dad. Naruto just stared at her in awe as she told her story. "You're awesome" was all he could come up with.

.

"(Here) _Right Here_ (Right Now) _Right Now_

_Stand my ground and never back down_

I know what I believe inside

I'm awake and I'm alive."

.

Hinata stood blushing slightly on the wooden platform before her entire clan. She wore a light lavender kimono decorated with a few black camellia prints trailing up one side. Her hair was bound up by two wooden hair pins in the traditional style, and she had light face paint on, highlighted her blush and accentuating her lavender eyes.

She smiled and bowed as the clan erupted in cheering once again as she was officially announced. She even saw Hanabi cheering for her, who she had felt bad for as she thought she would be jealous of the whole thing. She actually seemed relieved to not have the issues of the clan thrust upon her at such a young age.

There were many hooting calls from the special guests at the back of the hall, namely all her friends - fellow students, senseis, Hokage and all.

But there was one particular blonde head she was really looking for, which she couldn't see until he was right on top of her. Hinata's pretty pale eyes widened in surprise as he appeared in front of her and met her lips with his, kissing her in front of the entire assembly. Her face put her makeup to shame, turning a deep crimson that made the makeup look like a blush on top of a blush.

But she didn't break away in embarrassment, or even faint. Instead, she kissed him back passionately, showing everyone her love for the bold blonde.

Hiashi watched on, happy that his daughter had finally found bliss. He remembered his own beloved with rueful regret, but the smile could not be wiped off his face as he watched the new clan head kissing the village knucklehead on centre stage.

'_Love conquers all_' he thought.

.

"Waking up, waking up

Waking up, waking up

Waking up, waking up

Waking up, waking up."

.

Wow that was long huh? And no, I had no idea where that was going when I began. What a twist… At least with songfics I've got_ something_ to go on, the song. Well, hoped you liked. The next one will be the final, so this will be a small Songfic trilogy. And it will be a happy one! Sorry if I made you think Hinata actually died back there since I labeled it angst, but NO! I would never kill off Hinata! She's way too awesome! Anyway, to be truthful, the next chapter is still in a few notes, so I realize it's gonna take a while to write. Its school holidays now so I should be able to get it done faster, but I'm having to train heaps for this massive adventure race event thingy in three weeks. However, if I haven't got it out by then after then I will have all the time in the world so it will be flying out. Then once I've finished this one I'll start publishing my main story. I haven't finished its draft yet but it's getting so ridiculously long, with no end in sight, I think I'll just start uploading the first chapters while its still in progress. Oh, the line thingy's separating the stanzas? Didn't work even when I used the line thingy button, so I just used full stops again… Still looking for some help on this . Anyway, I've got some story suggestions to pass the time for you guys. I hope this is allowed, I haven't seen it on anyone else's stories, but oh well. The songfic Teardrops on my Guitar by xRosewithThornx is awesome, really sad but awesome, umm, another oneshot is Instrumental by Wandering Wonderer, it's AWESOME! And if you want an epic length NaruHina adventure romance, there's A Growing Affection by Xavon Wrentaile. It is the gears! Don't be put off by the first chapter, it did to me but I kept reading and it's seriously awesome. Plus its 150 chapters long and he's still updating frequently even after three years. My idol! Yea I realize I said all of these are awesome, but that's because they are! That's why I'm recommending them. Sorry I'm stuffing up the wordcount of the actual story with this super long author's note (muahahahaha I made it over 20,000 words with this), so I better stop. Umm, please tell me if recommending other fics is not allowed, I don't wanna be banned. Looking forward to your reviews, there awesome by the way!


	3. Chapter 3: Better Than Drugs

Chapter 3: Better Than Drugs 

A NaruHina Songfic

…

Hey there! Time for my incredibly long author's note! Sorry I took so long, I really need to get myself sorted on time management for completing my stories. This seriously took ages! Oh well, its certainly taught me that for future stories that I should probably go for shorter, more frequent chapters instead of 20,000 word ones that take over a month to finish (I think?). I hope you enjoy this, its just a really long fluffy romantic ending. I tried to put a tiny bit of action in there as I find fight scenes really easy to write (strange because this is like the opposite of a lot of writers but I find fluff harder to write) but it's not much. Sorry this is getting long again but I have to put this in: my draft for this story was sitting on the computer desk and my Mum accidently knocked it off, and you see, in my draft some of it got a little more explicit than this story (it's a draft after all. THANK GOD I don't write lemons or else I would be dead) and my Mum just had to pick up the single worst page in the entire story. Freaking embarrassing… Haha it always happens like that, say if you're watching a movie and there's like a 5 second nudity scene or something like that someone is bound to walk in in those five seconds. Sorry if theres a few spelling or grammatical errors in here, I only went over it once as I kind of rushed the editing on this to get it out today.

Disclaimer (I'm going to do one of those really lame disclaimers where the characters talk so I can get my word count up to 20k. Sorry if you think they're not lame but that's just my opinion (obviously I didn't do the author's notes until after I've written up this thing because the word counts already high… am I confusing you?))()^$#$(():

(Hinata): "A,Ano, I'm to shame to say it"

(Naruto): "K all good I'll say it, the word counts up to 19,934 words now so it shouldn't take long."

(Hinata): "Hinata-FTW that's naughty trying to up your word count by typing up huge author's notes and making us talk outside of the story."

(Hinata-FTW): "Deal with it… Sorry you're awesome I didn't mean it."

(Naruto): *Cracking knuckles* "What did you say to my girlfriend?"

(Hinata-FTW): "Nothing the word counts over 20k now so yea, I don't own Naruto, bye!"

:D

.

Kakashi knocked steadily on the door, his attention elsewhere as he read the last issue of Icha Icha Paradise. When he had heard of Jiraiya's death, he had nearly kicked the bucket himself, almost having a heart attack when he realized the series would never be finished. It was a long, torturous process, but he was slowly getting over it. However, the ordeal had affected his ninja life even more. Even on important missions he was now seen relishing the final masterpieces of Jiraiya's handiwork.

The door finally opened, snapping Kakashi out of his depression. It revealed a very tired looked Naruto, with an as always blushing Hinata peeping out from behind him. He grinned behind his mask as their disheveled figures, seeing the chance for some pervy teasing.

Even though the messy haired, orange pajama clad Hyuuga was now the head of the most prominent clan in Konoha, he had known her long before her appointment, when she was still the rejected failure, and so he was good friends with her, along with all the other Konoha 11.

"What _were_ you two doing all night?" he said teasingly. At their blank, confused looks, he decided to elaborate. "Naruto" he accused. "Were you congratulating Hinata on her new appointment with some sort of, _bodily gift_?"

Both teens instantly turned red when they realized what he was getting at; Naruto's face for once matching Hinata's. "N,no, it wasn't like that!" Naruto managed to get out, while Hinata faired worse, barely squeaking out a coherent denial.

Kakashi chuckled. "Joking kids" he said cheerily. "Anyway, Lady Hinata Hyuuga, a message from the Hokage."

Hinata came out of her embarrassed realm and re-concentrated on Kakashi, who was acting as messenger. "She wanted to congratulate you on your appointment yesterday, and for working out your issues with your clan and personal wellbeing. As clan head, you will be expected to attend council meetings with the other heads and the Hokage to discuss important matters to the village. So, to welcome you onto this council she has given you a gift to the best of her ability. With the village's poor economic status at the moment, having all its resources put back into rebuilding, she didn't buy you anything; rather, she has effectively left you out of any duties for today. It's not much, but you get the whole day off. She'll take care of your missions, clan business, errands, duties, etcetera, and that extends to you too Naruto, being her boyfriend it wouldn't be much of a gift if she couldn't spend it with you. Also, Naruto, if you want, you can attend the meetings with Hinata, as you are technically the head of the Uzumaki clan as well. Anyway, you're both free today, so do whatever you two lovebirds want. Stay in here and do whatever it was you were doing… or go out, I dunno, I don't care. Just, enjoy, you two deserve it. Cya!"

With that lengthy message he left the two again red faced teens to their deviations, whipping out his book again as he left. However, a thought lingered in his mind. '_Did I just say lovebirds? What sort of ninja am I? This book really is affecting me…_'

.

"I can't believe he thought we were doing that! We just woke up!" Naruto shouted in dismay. Hinata just got redder. "So, what do you wanna do today?" Naruto asked, glad to have a whole day alone with his girlfriend. Finally.

"W,well, this will be our first normal day together. I,I, um, love just being with you Naruto-kun, b, but if you want, we could g,go…out."

Naruto blinked, his smile turning sly. "Are you asking me out on a date Hinata-chan?"

She gasped. "N,N,no,no,n,no! It's not like that!" she squeaked. "I j,just thought we could spend some normal time together. But, a, um, d,date, would, would, maybe, probably, b,be just a,as good… W,well, better." She finished with a red face.

"A date it is!" Naruto proclaimed happily. "But for now, I just want some alone time with you."

Hinata blushed slightly, but then smiled. "Alone time sounds good." She said gently while her heart fluttered erratically. It was a pretty bold statement for the shy kunoichi.

Naruto grinned even more and hugged her. "This is why I love you Hinata-chan" he whispered in her ear.

"I love you too" she whispered back. The feeling to her was indescribable; that she could finally say it so freely to him, the words that had been trapped up inside her for so many years.

Naruto cherished the sound of her voice saying those three most meaningful words in the world, how they rolled so perfectly off her lips. He then dove on said lips in a deep kiss, leading her down to the couch where they could cuddle in comfort.

.

Feel your every heartbeat

Feel you on these empty nights

Calm the ache, stop the shakes

You clear my mind

You're my escape

From this messed up place

'Cause you let me forget

You numb my pain.

.

Hinata lay on the couch in Naruto's arms, completely at peace with her head on his chest, listening to the deep thump of his slow, rhythmic heartbeat. Naruto loved moments like these, feeling the _seemingly_ fragile girl in his arms. Her soft breathing the only thing moving her supple body created an overwhelming sense of peace within him. He concluded that this was the perfect equalizer to his hyperactivity; if not for Hinata surely he would have been diagnosed with ADD or something in his excitement in becoming the 'Hero of the Hidden Leaf'. He took in the sweet scent of lavender and cinnamon that subtly lingered over her, his nose just touching the top of her head.

But, all good things eventually have to come to an end. Just as Hinata was working up the courage to snuggle in deeper into his embrace and say she could stay there all day, Naruto looked up at the clock. He flinched involuntarily. It was 9:00 already! They had been lying there, lost in each other, for two hours!

"You wanna go on that date now?" Naruto asked, loathe to be breaking the perfect moment. But they had to do something with there day off.

Hinata sighed inwardly. '_Oh well, the date will be lots of fun too_' she reasoned to herself. She had always dreamed of going on a date with Naruto. "Of course Naruto-kun" she said cheerily.

She slowly raised herself from his chest that had become her pillow. "Where did you want to go, we haven't had breakfast yet…" Naruto asked.

Hinata took on a questioning look, then came to a conclusion. Why she even had to think about it, she wasn't sure. "Um, I guess it'll have to be Ichiraku's!" she said enthusiastically.

However, Naruto surprised her with his answer. "You know Hinata-chan; it doesn't have to be Ichiraku's. I want this day to be special; it's kinda like our first proper date. I wanna go where you really want to go."

Hinata smiled in pure joy. Naruto was willing to pass up ramen for her! That meant a lot more than it sounded. "Don't worry Naruto-kun, I like ramen as well, I do really want to go to Ichiraku's."

Naruto grinned. "You're so awesome Hinata-chan!" he shouted out his joy to the girl right next to him, however once again he couldn't come up with a more relevant complement than 'she was awesome'. She just couldn't get any better, yet she constantly did!

.

How can I tell you all that you are

What you do to me

.

10:00 AM found the happy young couple at Ichiraku's, each ordering their favorite dish. Miso Pork for Naruto and old man Teuchi's special diet ramen for Hinata. Then, Naruto was struck by a sudden idea. They had all day didn't they?

He smiled a sly, evil smile and slid his eyes over in Hinata's direction, who sat on the bench stool next to him. She instantly became confused and nervous, noticing his sudden look. He was definitely up to something.

"W,what is it Naruto-kun?" she said hesitantly, not sure if she wanted him to answer that. A random thought came to her racing brain trying to figure out what he was up to. After all, behind all her shyness and ninja training, she was just a girl on her first date after all.

"D,do I have something on my face?" she said in sudden panic, the horror of the chance hitting her conscience.

This had been completely unexpected to Naruto. '_Where did that come from?_' he wondered.

She continued to babble on under his gaze. "Please tell me if I do, I'm a girl, I'm not supposed to have stuff on my face" she blurted out.

Naruto jumped at this, he wasn't about to pass up a chance like this. "Here, I'll get it" he said, leaning towards the panicky girl. His hand rose as if to pick something off while Hinata blushed in embarrassment, but he had much more devious plans. Quick as a cat, he leant forward to her stock still face nervously waiting for him to get it off, and licked her cheek.

Hinata's skin ever so slowly grew from white to fluoro pink as her brain began to register what he had just done. Ayame, standing behind the counter, blushed heavily seeing the bold affection, and said awkwardly with a closed eyed, slightly open mouthed, awkward smile "Uh, perhaps I should go out back, leave you two alone for a while."

This promptly led to Hinata finally gaining enough semblance of reality back to notice her company and what she had just implied. Combined with the lingering feeling of Naruto's tongue sliding over her cheek, she crumpled in her seat, falling to the side onto the other bench chairs in the row, which effectively acted like a bed for the now half sitting, half lying unconscious girl.

"Aw c'mon Ayame, look what you did!" Naruto said cheekily. Inwardly, he was berating himself. He should have known the results he would get from that, but it had just been too tempting. '_We're still a long way off, aye Hinata-chan._'

.

When Hinata woke up she found Naruto and Ayame chatting amiably about the aspects and qualities of different flavors of ramen, while waiting for her to regain consciousness.

"Ahh, you're awake Hinata-sama." Ayame greeted, being the first one to notice her fluttering eyes since she was facing the couple. Hinata sat up groggily, fisting her eyes to get the wooziness away.

"Err, Hinata-chan, sorry about that" Naruto said sheepishly, scratching the back of his head.

"H,Hi Naruto-kun, Ayame-san, i,its alright. Um, A,Ayame-san, you don't have to call me that, before just Hinata was nice."

Ayame smiled. "Sure thing Hinata, you're a valued customer, but you're also a friend, it doesn't matter about your new position right?"

Hinata smiled, her eyes crinkling closed in joy. She understood! It was sad to have people who had been friends with for so long giving her the formal honorific; it was great that Ayame knew how she felt. "That's great Ayame-san!" she voiced her thoughts enthusiastically.

Ayame gave her a look. "But Hinata, you've got to cut out the formality with that 'san' as well."

Hinata looked down sheepishly. "Of course, A,Ayame-sa-" She quickly stopped herself from saying the every present honorific, forcing down her clan teachings for the moment.

"Anyway" the chef's helper said, finally getting down to business. "Here are your meals!"

She slid two steaming hot ramen bowls to each teen, their respect chosen meals. That sly look came back over Naruto's face as they dug in, which instantly put Hinata's mind off her food and onto worrying a lot more than earlier about what Naruto was up to.

"N,N,Naruto-kun, wh,wh,what i,is i,it?" She stuttered uncontrollably in nervousness.

"Weeeeell" Naruto drew it out. He really shouldn't enjoy teasing his girlfriend, but it was just so fun. And she was so cute how she reacted. "I was just thinking, we have all day right? And it's only eleven now, so this is like a brunch. We'll be able to eat twice as much. Sooo."

'_Ok, now I'm just really confused…_' Hinata thought in mock despair, still cooking under his secret plans as he drew it out even further.

"We're gonna have an eating contest!" He finally shouted out, momentarily deafening Ayame, who wasn't as used to his overly loud voice as Hinata was. Said Hinata gasped in surprise. That really was unexpected.

"A,an eating contest! Wh,what for?" she asked.

Naruto grinned maniacally, his whole plan finally coming to the surface. "Whoever wins gets an hour with the other person, and they have to do anything the other says."

He smirked when Hinata gradually became pinker and pinker at the hidden meanings. "A,Anything?" she stuttered out, everything that she could do to Naruto almost making her faint again.

He nodded enthusiastically. "It'll be really fun Hinata! When I win I'll take you for the best hour long date you could ever think of!"

'_When__ you win?_' Hinata thought. Naruto was seriously underestimating her. Had he forgotten she had won the annual 'Ninja Champion Eating Contest' this year. Well, not just win, but sweeping the floor with 46 bowls to 31. She had utterly destroyed them, winning by a landslide, seeming completely unfazed by the meal while everyone else was blue in the face about ready to puke their guts out. _Including Naruto_.

Surprising both of the other people in the shop, she slammed her hand down on the counter and looked him in the eye. "You're on!" she said fiercely, but it soon broke down to an ear to ear grin, then a small sheepish smile and accompanying blush, like usual.

Ayame called out for Teuchi who was out back, and they began preparing a mountain of ramen bowls, themselves grinning at the promise of a show and a mountain of money to rival the bowls they were stacking up.

A sudden thought came to Hinata, and she beamed that she could keep her word. "Oh, Naruto-kun, I can pay you back for that money I borrowed now! Umm, Ayame, Teuchi-san, could you please forward the bill to my clans coffers, since I'm the Hyuuga head now I'm sure they won't mind."

Teuchi grinned and nodded his head in acknowledgement, then went back to vigorously preparing the meal. Naruto too grinned at his now filthy rich girlfriend. This was going to be one hell of a day! That is, if they didn't ruin the rest of it by being sick on ramen.

'_Heheh, maybe this wasn't the best idea at the start of the day_.' He mused to himself sheepishly. '_But if we had it at dinner we'd be too sick for all the cuddling and kissing that comes at night! And that could even lead to more, depending on how today goes!_' Devious, horny machinations began infecting his mind about the kinky things Hinata could do for him as a reward for taking her on the best date ever. That was until he caught where his mind was wandering. '_Dam you pervy sage! Why did I ever read that book of yours!_' he cursed his past teacher, having had to read and help with the infamous book on their travels.

Another random thought came to him. '_Perhaps Hinata could get some tips from it? Gah! Stop thinking like this Naruto!_' This inner war between good old innocently oblivious Naruto and pervy Jiraiya influenced Naruto raged within him until a steaming hot bowl of ramen was set before each competitor.

Well, the two of them. It wasn't the biggest eating comp around, but was probably the most competitive. Each of them had the same flavor that would change with each bowl, to mix it up a bit and make it even. Even so, this actually made Hinata at a disadvantage. Naruto liked all ramen. Full stop. However, Hinata gagged whenever she got one whiff of seafood ramen. She was definitely not looking forward to the crab and shrimp flavored ramen bowls, but she was still planning to wolf them down, if a little blue in the face. '_I will get that hour with Naruto-kun!_' she resolved herself.

"Ok guys, you ready?" Teuchi said, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. "Yes!" he got from the two eager teens. He was amazed by Hinata's change in demeanor from when he had last seen her, but this didn't show, he was to busy with all the potential profit of these two.

"Ok, three, two," the teens picked up and broke their chopsticks apart, hovering over their bowls. "One…" he drew it out. "Begin!" Teuchi exclaimed and Ayame couldn't help the small laugh that escaped her from seeing the too serious expressions on their faces as they dove into their ramen bowls, "Itadakimasu!" being shouted by both.

.

Naruto demolished his first one just ahead of Hinata. While he was more of a 'sprint' eater, she liked to go slow and steady, and last longer. But for this competition she needed a faster pace, and was struggling to keep up.

"Next!" Naruto cried out, already on his seventh bowl, while Hinata was only on her fifth, but it was obvious to all he was already slowing.

'_I hope he's not like this in bed…_' The unbidden thought coming to the modest girl made her temporarily choke on her mouthful of ramen before she finally forced it down. '_Where did that come from!_' she shouted mentally to herself. Now that she was finally with him, these thoughts of where their relationship would hopefully eventually come to came to her mind a lot more frequently, randomly reducing her to a pink faced wreck.

She finally got her bowl down, and was now only one behind Naruto. However, they were still nowhere near finished. Hinata took until the 20th bowl to gain that one bowl on him, but then, no matter how much she forced down the noodlely goodness, she couldn't gain another on him. He had come a long way since the last eating competition, where she had slaughtered them all. He did get to practice every day…

The two teens were finally worn down on their 50th bowls, now taking it at a snails pace, eyeing each other over their bowls. Finally, Naruto set his finished bowl down. "Ehhh, I don't think I can eat anymore" he groaned, holding his bulging stomach.

Hinata crowed inwardly. '_One more bowl and I'll catch up!_' she thought in excitement, but she was certainly struggling with that one bowl. Every time she looked at the noodles, she wanted to vomit, and every time she put them in her mouth, the feeling doubled. She forced it down.

But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't even take a look at another bowl. "I,I guess it's a draw" she said.

Naruto looked sad. "Yea, I guess that means the deals off" he said dejectedly. Hinata looked up at him in surprise.

"No way!" she said. "It means we both get an hour with the other!" she said with a slightly devious smile.

Naruto grinned. "Awesome!" he said. "_That's_ a deal!"

Hinata paid for the oversized meal to an ecstatic looking Ayame and Teuchi, signing the receipt with a small flourish to prove to her clan the bill was authentic. The happy, bloated couple then left the shop and stepped out into the street arm in arm, thought slightly unstable from the copious amounts of takeout they had just devoured.

Hinata snuggled her head up against Naruto's shoulder. She was no longer shy enough to avoid giving him any direct affection in the public street, but was still way too embarrassed to go around kissing him directly in front of other staring people. When she was up on stage and he did that, she had almost died. It had been both the best moment of her life, and the most embarrassing.

"S,so, did you want to go first?" Hinata asked politely.

Naruto turned to her with a smirk. "Huh? Like, I have you or you have me?" Hinata blushed and looked to the side shyly. "Umm, you have me" she said quietly, the blush quickly spreading to her whole face. But she trusted Naruto not to do something pervy, so that was why she was letting him.

Plans had been formulating in Naruto's head during the ramen contest, but for them to succeed, he needed some time. "Nah, its cool Hinata, you can have me first" he said with a grin, which quickly turned sly. "Just don't wear me out so much I can't have you next." Hinata turned bright red at this.

"I, uh, um, of, of course not, N,Naruto-kun" she stuttered out in embarrassment. "W,Why don't we go back to y,your apartment first?"

Naruto grinned and decided a tiny bit more teasing wouldn't be too out of hand. "Aaaah" he sighed knowingly. "You want me all to yourself, hey? In private?" He finished with a cheeky smile.

Even more blood rushed to her head, before she blurted out a "Naruto-kun!" and batted him lightly on the arm, admonishing his pervy thoughts. It was quite a feat for Hinata, and momentarily shocked Naruto into silence, but he soon smiled again and wrapped an arm around her waist and led the poor blushing girl up the road towards his apartment block.

.

When they got back to the apartment, Hinata grabbed her bag and ran into the bathroom, saying "I'll just change into something more appropriate Naruto-kun. You wont need much either" and with that she disappeared behind the bathroom door.

Naruto stood gawking in the centre of the lounge. '_Is she serious!_' he thought. '_I was just teasing! Is it true? Is, is she really gonna do that to me!_' He clamped a hand over his nose as he felt a tiny dribble of blood run. '_Nah, she wouldn't do that, Hinata's a __lady__. The head of the Hyuuga clan! Surely not!_'

However, his internal arguments ceased when Hinata came out wearing nothing but a towel. Even as he gawked, it started to slip. "Holy crap Hinata!" he shouted and was launched across the room from the severity of his nose bleed. Hinata, who had been blushing profusely at having so much skin showing near her boyfriend, yelped as Naruto shot across the room and fainted from mass blood loss.

"Naruto-kun! Naruto-kun!" she shouted as she rushed over to him, the towel slipping the rest of the way from her body. She knelt beside him, shaking him gently until he regained consciousness, repeating his name softly over and over.

"Augh. Hinata-chan?" Naruto said groggily as he pried his eyes back open. A major headache set in to rival his now turbulent stomach. He looked up to see Hinata above him, gently shaking him. The towel was gone. Before he succumbed back to his nosebleed however, he noticed she wasn't nude, but in a lavender one piece swimsuit. "Ehhhh!" he shouted when he saw it. "You wanted to go swimming?"

Hinata nodded profusely, and then looked down as Naruto sat up. "Un,Unless you don't want to Naruto-kun. I don't care about the conditions of the deal, I just thought you might like to. B,But, I,if you don't want to…" She trailed off her stutter bug rambling.

Naruto cupped her cheek with a hand, the other encircling her neck to pull her down on top of him. She "Eep"ed when he pulled her into the tender, unexpected kiss, but quickly closed her eyes in ecstasy and sank into him.

They eventually pulled apart, Naruto struggling to focus his mind on his plan through the dreamy state he was induced into by the kiss. Hinata was in exactly the same state.

"I'd love to go swimming Hina-chan, but, maybe tomorrow? Today, can we just do something nice and relaxing?" he said with a smile.

Hinata pondered, her brow drawing down in a tiny frown. Swimming was extremely relaxing to her… But, if he didn't want to today, she had other things they could do. She paid no heed to his devious smile, truly believing he didn't want to swim, and so changed plans. She gave him a closed eyed smile to show she was fine with it.

"Ok, I'll go put my jacket and things back on while I think up something else" she said and got up off him, retreating back into the bathroom. Naruto slowly got up, still shaky from the blood loss. Still, he quickly created several shadow clones. Outlining his plan to them, they sprinted out his door to various places in the village for their new mission.

.

Hinata stared at the mirror with a red face as she squeezed out of the tight swimsuit. '_I can't believe I actually let Naruto-kun see me in this!_' she thought, stepping out of it. She sighed in relief, being finally able to take full breaths again. It had been extremely tight around her chest, she hadn't been able to find anything that fully accommodated for her slim body but huge cleavage.

She stared at her body in the mirror, and watched in astonishment as she turned from fluoro pink to a deep, maroon red. '_No, go away delayed fainting syndrome!_' she yelled inwardly, but couldn't keep the redness out of her cheeks as she looked at her body. '_I've grown so much_' she thought hesitantly, looking down at her D-cup's and shapely hips. '_I hope Naruto-kun likes it._' This unbidden thought finished off her fragile consciousness, and she fell to the bathroom floor with a dull thud.

Naruto, hearing said thud, ran to the door of the bathroom, putting his hand on the knob. As he tensed to pull it open, thinking something had happened to his girlfriend, sense came back to him. He jerked his hand away as if the handle was on fire.

'_Naruto you idiot! What if she's naked! She said she was going in there to take __off__ that swimsuit!_' he mentally berated himself. He didn't know how lucky he was. If he had opened that door and seen Hinata's naked form sprawled out on the floor, he would have been sent straight to critical condition in the hospital for a week due to mass blood loss.

Naruto instead went to his couch and forced himself to sit down and wait, knowing nothing could have happened to as strong a ninja as Hinata in his bathroom without him knowing. He tapped his fingers to some random beat of a repeated 'Bycycle' that he had heard the other day. Yea, from Hinata's alarm…

After around 10 minutes Hinata had recovered and stepped out fully attired in lavender and white jacket complemented with her regular dark blue track pants. She smiled nervously to Naruto. "I've thought of something else we can do" she said with a slight blush, the thoughts that had caused her to faint still lingering in her mind.

Naruto looked at her expectantly, waiting for her 'orders'. Hinata finally gushed it out, her excitement overpowering her shyness. She knew Naruto had to love this.

"We can go training!" she said ecstatically. Finally she could train with him, stand and fight side by side with him. Even if they would be imaginary enemies, it was one step closer to another of her dreams. Of walking beside Naruto, fighting beside him, with him, for him. Yesterday she had proven her strength to her father, so today; she would _show_ it to Naruto. She would hold nothing back.

Naruto fisted the air with a loud "Ooh yea!"

Being the number one most hyperactive knuckleheaded ninja, he was always up for training. And who better to train with than his girlfriend? If he hadn't already thought up enough today, even more devious plans were already coming up in his mind, involving a lot of chasing, then hugging, then kissing, then removing certain items of clothes, then sticking- '_STOP Naruto!_' he shouted to himself as his mind wandered slightly too far.

"Lets go!" he said out loud, banishing his small Hinata-like blush. And so the couple crossed the village hand in hand to training ground Ten, where there was a nice simple field that they could train together undisturbed.

.

Naruto quickly found himself regretting agreeing to train. He soon found Hinata whipping around him, her taijutsu style and nimble, fleeting movements completely outclassing his basic style that relied on all out power to be effective. Of course, since it was training, neither used chakra, so his usually over the top strength tactics didn't help him here. Even without her gentle fist strikes, Hinata's hits freaking hurt! It also didn't help that whenever she got an opening she would hit one of his nerves instead of the usual chakra points, which would numb the appendage and hurt like fifty times worse than her normal hits.

Hinata struck him again in the ribs and leapt back. "C'mon Naruto-kun, please hit me. I feel guilty being the only one hurting someone, you haven't touched me yet. You don't have to hold back, so please don't."

Her unintended taunt hit Naruto hard. He hadn't been holding back, at least not more than a normal training match called for. So, he taunted right back, as was his way.

"We have twenty minutes left, that's plenty enough time for me to have you begging me to stop!" He charged with a grin and Hinata smiled, stepping in to meet him. What she didn't expect was instead of Naruto striking for her, he cheated and sent a surge of chakra to his legs, boosting his speed to catch the girl off guard. And into a giant bear hug. Hinata's surprised squeak of "Eep!" was cut off when they hit the ground and he glomped her.

Her wide eyes stared up into the mischievous sparkle of his own as he smothered her shocked frozen mouth. That is until she got over said shock and started responding with equal enthusiasm. He rolled over from atop her to momentarily break for air, but she followed him, lips and tongues still intertwined, until she was the one on top.

This sent a completely new thrill up her spine, feeling like she was in control. Now her own lavender eyes twinkled mischievously as Naruto stared up at her, to shocked by her boldness to respond with his own mouth. Role reversal if there ever was one. Naruto sweat dropped in his mind at his backfired capture and kiss plan, but he was even more happier with the results.

'_Yes! Go Hinata!_' he mentally cheered as he began responding again and their tongues battled for dominance. '_She must be sooo horny to be acting this bold!_' he thought, grinning into the kiss as he thought of that. Hinata. Horny.

His hands slowly rose from the ground to caress her back, going lower and lower as they lost themselves in the kiss. Pleasure ran through Hinata when she felt his hands on her, and she in turn put her own to his cheeks, pulling him deeper into the kiss.

That is until a dim part of her mind realized where they were. Lying in the soft grass, in the peaceful quite of… a popular training ground. Where at any moment a team of ninja, kids through to adult could walk in on them.

'_Oh my gosh!_' she thought. '_We're doing this here! Outside!_' She promptly fainted from embarrassment on his chest, lips still locked to his.

Naruto didn't fail to notice her sudden lack of force on his mouth, and so disconnected from his suddenly unconscious girlfriend and moved his arms up to her waist, now just holding her lovingly with a wry smile on his face.

'_This could be difficult Hinata_' he thought, and then a semblance of reality came back to him as it just had his girlfriend. '_Oh crap! Really difficult! We're in the middle of a freaking training ground making out!_'

Naruto quickly got up and picked up Hinata bridal style, carrying her over to a tree, and then sat back against it with her in his lap, so it didn't look so suspicious if another team came along. When she eventually woke up, she found her position perfectly acceptable, so snuggled in close, holding him in a sweet embrace for the rest of her allotted time. _This_ was her heaven.

.

"You're better than drugs

Your love is like wine

Feel you comin' on so fast

Feel you comin' on to get me high.

You're better than drugs

Addicted for life

Feel you comin' on so fast

Feel you comin' on to get me high."

.

"Jitensha! Jitensha!" '_There's that song again!_' Naruto thought as the static notes of Oreskaband buzzed from the alarm in Hinata's pocket. She quickly turned it off and craned her head back to look into Naruto's eyes in regret.

"Don't worry Hina-chan, your gonna have even more fun with my hour" he said with a gentle smile, then briefly captured her lips again, making her pining eyes close again in bliss. She was helpless to his kisses; they cut through her disagreements like a warm knife through butter.

He smirked when he broke. "By the way, I was lying earlier, I did want to swim, but it was _my_ plan. Heheh, sorry about that, but now you gotta go all the way back to the apartment to get back into that sexy swimsuit."

Hinata blushed as Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly. When she got over his compliment, she smiled at him in amusement. "Ok Naruto-kun" she said with a light giggle, so the two teens walked all the way back through the village to Naruto's apartment. As soon as Hinata had slunk back into the bathroom, Naruto ran to his bedroom, chucked on his green board shorts, and created a clone.

"You know what to do" he said quickly. The clone gave him a solid nod, so the real Naruto opened his bedroom window and vaulted out ninja style to go bring about the final machinations of his master plan, the clone closing the window behind him.

.

"Hey there, I'm just a clone" the Naruto clone said when Hinata exited the bathroom with her swimsuit under her jacket and track pants. He scratched his head sheepishly. "Umm, yea, the boss, well me, its pretty confusing, well the real me's got this plan for some sort of treasure hunt thing. Anyway, here's the first clue."

He gave a stunned Hinata a piece of paper then stunned her even further with a kiss before poofing away tantalizingly, frustrating her to no end, leaving her unsatisfied with the kiss cut short, and wanting more.

She carefully opened the slip of paper in anticipation, not fully knowing what to expect. '_I kind of like people like you_' she read in her head, but the handwriting continued. '_How wrong I was, I freaking love people like you! No, actually just you Hinata! You know where to go for this one._'

Hinata grinned. She certainly did. She ran out Naruto's door with a huge spring in her step, sprinting over the rooftops of Konoha to the place Naruto had first really acknowledged her, team 8's training ground, and the three posts she was so familiar with.

.

Nostalgia hit her when she gazed upon said posts. The dried redness encrusted on the light padding was a testament to all the blood and tears she had shed here, but also of so many good memories with her team.

It was also the home of one of her most treasured memories. He hadn't exactly put it very well, but those words still came up in her dreams. '_I always used to think you were a shy, dark weirdo. But you know, I kind of like people like you._'

Hinata smiled when she saw a Naruto clone step out from behind one of the posts. "Hey there!" it started to greet before Hinata was on top of it, boldly taking it out with a kiss. She caught the fluttering paper as it fell from the smoke of the dispersed clone.

.

When the second clone's memories came back to him, Naruto almost fell off the cliff he was walking up. '_Dam I can't wait till she gets here! Lucky clones!_'

After the pleasure of the kiss faded, Naruto again made his was up the vertical climb, eventually reaching the top of the mountain. There was something special that awaited him there, something that he wanted to share with Hinata. He had discovered it by pure fluke; who would have ever thought that such a thing was here of all place? He had found it due to a mission they had all been given when the Konoha 12 were still genin. They had had to lead their own teams of academy students to the top of this mountain. However, because of severe weather conditions, the teams were all called back. Even Naruto's team, halfway up the mountain, had been grudgingly forced back.

A week after, in clear skies, he had gone alone to prove a point to himself. He had climbed the mountain and found something magnificently unexpected on the flat top. Now however, being a jonin level ninja; even though he was still officially genin, he made the climb in a synch.

'_Better make it harder for Hinata so she'll be more inclined when she makes it up_' he thought deviously. Gathering his chakra, he bit his thumb, spread the blood over his digits, and planted his hand on the ground.

"Summoning Jutsu!" he called out. A massive cloud of chakra surrounded the large platform. It quickly cleared in the soft wind blowing across the mountaintop. Squatting on the edge of the precipice to the forest floor hundreds of meters below, Gamabunta glared back at him.

"That was awfully close brat! What have you called me all the way up here for, I don't see any enemies" he grouched.

Naruto looked sheepish, scratching his head in that way of his. "Uhh, hey there, I was wondering if you could help me out with something for my girlfriend" he said embarrassedly.

Gamabunta's anger at being called for something so trivial was outweighed by his shock. "My my Naruto-boy! You have a girlfriend now!"

Naruto grinned. "Yea! She's absolutely awesome! You were already out of the fight, but she was the one that saved me from Pain and cause me to win!"

"Ooh, that girl! Granny Toad told me all about her, she happened to be semi-conscious enough to hear everything she said and what happened to her" Gamabunta exclaimed.

"Yea!" Naruto repeated again. "She's so awesome! We're doing this deal thing at the moment where we get to do whatever we want with each other for an hour, so I got her on this cool scavenger hunt thing with my clones, and this is the last stop, but it was a bit too easy so I was wondering if you could spray toad oil over the cliff face there so she'd have a harder time climbing!" Naruto rambled.

Gamabunta looked at him strangely. "You sure?" he queried. "You don't wanna make it too hard for her, she could get hurt or angry with you."

Naruto cracked up at that. "Hinata! Mad!" he blurted out between guffaws. When he had controlled himself, he smirked at the toad boss. "And I'm not worried about her getting hurt, she's a freaking tank!"

Gamabunta gave a toady smile. From the info deduced from Granny Toad, then yes, it did sound like she was a 'freaking tank'. "Sure then Naruto, if it's for you to 'get some' with this girl I've heard so much about!" he teased and turned around to face the cliff, leaving a slightly blushing Naruto behind.

He opened his mouth a spewed a huge amount of toad oil over the rock until it soaked all the way down to the bottom. "Well, I'll be going then" he said gruffly and with a slight wave, poofed away.

"Cya, and thanks" Naruto said with his own wave, then grinned as he felt yet another of his clones taken out by Hinata's soft sweet lips. "I can't wait!" he said to himself, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.

.

Hinata looked at the paper in her hand. The last one had been so easy, reading simply '_Sakura knows where this is _' The large cheesy grin scrawled on the end failed to go unnoticed by her sharp eyes, so she hadn't even bothered to go ask Sakura; she just went straight down to the small grove of sakura trees down by the river.

It was a majestic place that she had always wished she could spend time with Naruto there. In fact when she read the note she had cursed herself for not spending her hour with him here instead of that grotty old training ground. It was certainly more private than a training ground…

As she walked through the corridors of pink blossoms, she had seen Naruto standing under one of the trees. She was hoping it wasn't another clone; this place was so gorgeous she never wanted to leave. But when she ran over to him with a hug and kiss, he too had poofed away, leaving the note in his wake.

"Aww" she said out loud as she grabbed the fluttering piece of paper remaining. "Where five leafy shadows meet" she pondered the riddle out loud. "_Leafy_ shadows? Does he mean the Hokages? Oh! The Hokage monument! I bet that's the last place, he always goes up there!' With that final thought she took off at full ninja speed to the monument on the cliff side; a blur racing through the village.

.

Hinata panted as she reached the top of the hill, but grinned when she saw Naruto standing atop the Fourth's head. She controlled her breathing and snuck up on the poor victim, who was staring out over the village. She pounced when she was still five meters away, hitting him with enough force to knock him over by wrapping her arms and legs around him. She sat up on his chest.

"Please be real" she whispered into his ear seductively and kissed him softly on the lips. When he didn't disperse instantly, her hopes soared, but when they broke he shook his head.

"Sorry, but I'm the last one" he said and kissed her this time. Hinata responded passionately, tonguing with him until he disappeared.

Which was a very strange experience, one moment having her tongue stuck down his throat and the next tasting air. It left her bug eyed atop the Fourth's head looking like she was poking her tongue out at the village below.

She picked up the paper after she recovered and flipped it over to see her final clue.

The treasure that was never found, when we genin had responsibility

Hinata stayed in her half sitting, half kneeling position, legs bent out to her sides like she was doing a kneeling splits, and put a finger to her chin, looking up into the vast blue sky in thought.

"What?" she finally said aloud to Minato's head. This one completely stumped her. Even though it wasn't written she could just see Naruto going "Hah! This ones way harder!"

She read it again. "When we genin had responsibility?" she wondered aloud. "Treasure that wasn't found? Again, what?"

She thought back to all her adventures that somehow involved Naruto when she was a genin. '_No, definitely not the Chunin exams. And I didn't have anything to do with the Sasuke retrieval squad when they didn't get that 'treasure'. I guess we found the Bikochu in the end, and helped that bounty hunter guy, so that won't be it. We protected those merchants and the princess, and went to that scary mansion. But none of those missions involved treasure. We did do that treasure hunt thingy with Kiba and Akamaru, but we found that! What could it be?_'

She thought more and read it yet again. '_When we genin had responsibility? Wait, does he mean when we got to lead the academy students to Mt Takurame?_' She gasped. "He does!" She shrieked out loud. '_Oh wow! I wonder what's up there; no one ever did get to the top!_'

Then she was gone, boosting away from the village towards the now rapidly growing mountain in the distance. "C'mon, I gotta make it within the hour!" she shouted herself on as she raced through the peaceful forest, her self encouragement pushing her to new speeds.

"Sorry!" she called over and over again to all the animals she disturbed with the wind turbulence her passing body caused because of how fast she was running.

.

Finally she reached the bottom, having located the mountain with her Byakugan. '_Well, that was a lot easier than I remember_' she thought, then looked up at the cliff face. It did look quiet daunting, but with her level of chakra control now it would be a piece of cake. Especially with the incentive of the _real_ Naruto waiting at the top with some sort of treasury reward. She hoped it was a kiss, a real kiss. His clone's kisses were good, of course; it was Naruto-kun after all, but they just were in a separate league to his real kisses. They could never be that awesome.

She ran and jumped up onto the wall, sending just the right amount of chakra to her feet to make her stick. Only, she didn't. Her foot slipped right off! Desperately, she surged more chakra into her other foot that was just coming into contact. It layered cracks in the wall and tiny splinters of rock flew out. Her foot sank a few inches into the disintegrating piece of cliff, but she eventually stuck without the hindrance of whatever it was on the wall.

"Ow" Hinata said. She was bent over backwards, hanging half upside down from the wall with one foot. She looked down through her hair that fell in a halo around her face, only to find it piled up on the ground an inch from her nose. She blinked. That would have hurt!

'_That was close, I'm glad I jumped that high_' she thought, not relishing the embarrassment of falling on her face had she been any lower. '_Typical of you Naruto-kun to make it harder_' she mused as she used her core muscles to pull herself upright, clinging to the wall more solidly with all four limbs once she was within reach.

A really slick, shiny oil-like substance coated every inch of the cliff face. "Eww" she said out loud when it got all over her hands and the front of her jacket, as she was pressed up close enough to the wall that her chest was scraping on it.

She sighed. 'W_ell, at least I know he's up there_'she thought in compensation, looking at the brighter side of her predicament. She then commenced the painstakingly slow climb up the treacherous wall, carefully managing her chakra flow to all four points of contact every step of the way up, glad for her natural precision and immense training on chakra control.

.

Naruto looked down the cliff. '_Yus! She's finally here!_'

He could see her climbing now, slow and careful due to the toad oil. He wasn't worried about her falling; she could easily twirl around onto her feet and reinforce her bones with chakra take the impact. She was a ninja after all. And a Chunin at that! Higher ranked than him!

He sat back and waited. The grin would not be pried off his face with a crowbar he was so excited. He couldn't wait to see, and feel, what she would do to him once she found the real one. Probably rape him on sight. Now _that_ he wouldn't mind. '_Ugh, __romance__ Naruto, not sex!_' he mentally berated his inner pervert. He was having those dirty thoughts about Hinata _way _too much lately to be healthy.

.

Hinata finally reached the lip of the rock face and climbed over, now pretty much covered in toad oil. She looked at nothing but her own dirty self as she stood up.

"Eeeeewwwwwwwww" she whined. With a grimace she shook her slimy hands out to the sides of her body, splattering gooey oil over the rock. Her head whipped up when she heard a low chuckle. "Naruto-kun!" she gasped even as she was already leaping for him.

That was _definitely_ the real one. It had to be!

Then she was on top of him. Naruto's musings were nearly correct, she was all over him. Finally, after much tongues wrestling for dominance and many 'oopies' when limbs roamed too far in their heated passion, Hinata blushed at their position and rolled off him.

Standing up with a now completely red face, she mumbled apologies for jumping him like that. "Uh, s,sorry" she said embarrassedly. "You did all that treasure hunt thing just to make me do that to you, didn't you?" she accused.

His grin was all the answer she needed. She kissed him again, this one with less urgency and passion, but more love. It was a sweet, gentle, relaxing kiss that she just sank into and made her heart feel like bursting.

When they finally broke again, Hinata finally began noticing her surroundings as her gaze eventually wandered from Naruto's face. She couldn't hold in the huge gasp that forced its way out of her when she witnessed the majesty sprawled before her.

"Oh Naruto-kun. Its, its, h,how, how did you... It, its so beautiful." She stumbled about her words in breathless awe.

Behind her boyfriend, rocky formations twisted in and out of each other in a myriad of shapes and patterns, creating soaring towers and massive caverns of rock. But what made it so beautiful were the thousands of colors in the rock. Lines of sediments that had been eroded away throughout the years showed many different washy colors in the rock, but throughout it all crystals gleamed, their own vibrant colors sparkling in the high noon sun.

And amidst all the formations were pools of bright blue water! Full of minerals to give it its amazing color, the glacial water sat in holes and pits formed by its erosion of the rock. What she soon found out was that it was also heated to the perfect temperature by the lava deep within the mountain, the hot steam seeping up in cracks in the ground to mingle with the water.

Naruto felt his heart swell as he watched Hinata's eyes sparkle in awe as they reflected the majesty before her, her mouth slightly open, forgotten by her mind having been taken away by the surroundings. It really was beautiful, he surmised.

Some of the pools even created a bright blue mirror for the rocks above, creating ever more patterns and mazes in the landscape. Hinata now knew why Naruto had told her to wear her swimsuit to the top of a mountain, and why he hadn't wanted to swim earlier. He had saved it for this, for her.

.

Hinata squealed as Naruto splashed her in the waist deep water. "Naruto, don't!" She… still squealed.

As soon as he stopped she got a mischievous glint in her eye. Just when he was least expecting it, she sent a huge splash right in his face. Hinata succumbed to the uncontrollable giggles that assaulted her from the priceless look on his face. Then, he was coming for her!

She squeaked in surprise and dived away, Naruto hot on her tail. He quickly caught her, leaping atop and dunking her into the warm embrace of the water. Hinata "Eep"ed as it surged over her head and she twisted back towards the surface only to see Naruto come underwater with her.

He gave her a tight lipped smile to keep the water out of his mouth, and kissed her. Her eyes widened at the unexpected thrill of the underwater kiss. They erupted back out of the water in each others arms, lips still locked, arms intertwined, hers crossed over his shoulders behind his head, his around her waist. They parted and he boosted her up so that she could wrap her legs around his waist, effectively sitting on him.

When they finally parted and untangled themselves, Naruto cheekily said "You're it!" and dove away.

"Oo you little…" Hinata mock growled and dived after him, just missing the swipe at his ankle.

.

Once their raucous activities of kiss tiggy died down, the couple sat back against a smooth rock wall in the corner of their pool and admired their surroundings coupled with the view from atop the mountain.

Hinata sat in Naruto's lap, the warm water lapping just above her chest. She just couldn't stop thinking how romantic this was. She never wanted to leave. Naruto truly was the best boyfriend in the world. This hour kicked her hour's butt!

"Naruto, thank you so much for this" she said quietly, not wanting to break the peaceful solitude of the moment. It was like they were the only two people in the world.

She could _feel_ his grin behind her. "I knew you'd like it" he whispered into her ear.

Hinata jumped at the chance to tease. "Oh no Naruto-kun, you've got it all wrong. I don't like it at all" she said cheekily, feeling him flinch. But she couldn't leave him like that; she was too kind for her own good, which made her utterly hopeless at teasing. She turned to him with a grin of her own. "I don't like it, I love it!" she said ecstatically and kissed him.

She knew it was cliché and completely lame, but he had fallen for it! Because of how unexpected it was coming from Hinata, he had believed everything she said.

Now he was grinning into the kiss with her, and they broke giggling. "You naughty girl" he teased, making her turn red. '_He's the king of tease, I'm stuffed now_' she thought in mock despair and sighed inwardly in exasperation. '_And it's so ridiculously easy to tease me… What did I just get myself in for!_'

Hinata had no idea she was also a tease. In another sense of the word. When she had been taking off her jacket and pants to go for a swim, Naruto had been gawking as she revealed her tight lavender swimsuit. The only thought in his head had been '_YEA!_' but she had been blushing too profusely to notice his admiration. When she finally stood back up with her pile of clothes bundled in her arms, Naruto had composed himself somewhat.

"I hope you like it" she said innocently, and Naruto almost had another nosebleed attack with the way her voice sounded so sexy. "Though I'm not very comfortable with it, it shows so much skin" she had continued. It tipped the scales and poor Naruto had finally succumbed to much twitching and clamping his hand over his nosebleed.

Now Naruto noticed his girlfriends downcast look, and thought it was real. He guessed exactly what she was thinking. "Don't worry Hina-chan, I wont tease you anymore if you don't want me to."

Hinata smiled. "Thank you Naruto-kun" she said and leaned back against him, resting her head on his chest as they sat in comfortable silence in the steamy water amidst the sparkling maze of pillars gazing over the sweeping view of the leafy forest and Konoha beneath them.

.

Hinata and Naruto eventually left the perfect spot with promises to return together someday. They still had a few hours of daylight left and had it planned out perfectly. They, well, _Naruto_, had allocated it for some well deserved smooching time in his apartment until they went back outside for dinner.

However, there is no such thing as a perfect day in the ninja world. Waiting for them outside the building housing Naruto's apartment was a _very_ irate Hyuuga elder. He was the one who had been at the forefront of Hinata's abuse over the years, the one that had been so eager to punish Neji and Ko the other day. Naruto could feel the killer intent radiating off the elder in all directions as he paced around stormily, having not yet noticed the young couples presence.

Naruto quickly yanked Hinata back around the corner and put his arm up against the wall as a barrier to her. "Stay here Hinata, I'll deal with him, he's obviously here for you, and he doesn't want to talk. He wants to fight you, so stay back and I'll take him out, I don't want you to get hurt anymore."

Hinata took a deep breath. She wasn't about to let Naruto take all the hits for her, to get hurt for her. "No Naruto-kun" she said softly, yet her voice was firm. "I'm a ninja as well as your girlfriend, and now even the Hyuuga clan head. Kunoichi always get left in the background in battles, told to 'stay back' by you guys. Well, I will not do that. I will fight by your side Naruto-kun. We can easily take him together, elder or not, seal or no seal."

She stepped forward by his side, and Naruto, despite his admonitions, couldn't help but grin at her judgment that had just completely overpowered his argument.

"Your awesome Hinata-chan" he said softly, repeating his 'awesome' mantra that was now his all round compliment to her, trying to convey all his feelings in that one word every time he said it.

Hinata smiled, her eyes twinkling at her boyfriends trust and admiration, and together, they stepped out around the corner to face the elder.

.

"You!" the angry shout immediately reached them as the irate man saw them. "You don't deserve to be the clan head!" he blurted out, getting straight into it. "You are weak and pathetic, and a girl! We need a strong clan head, like me! Not some stupid little failure like you, who will lead our clan into ruin!"

He continued ranting from his spot as the couple calmly walked towards him, hands still clasped with each other, fingers intertwined. Hinata responded in a stern, lecturing voice; like she was talking to a child that didn't get everything he wanted. This _was_ her subordinate now, so she had to show some authority, even if she didn't really feel it.

"Hekuma-san, I defeated the previous clan head in battle and he publically relinquished his title to me, declaring me the leader of our clan. Does that not prove my strength? Prove that I am capable of leading our clan?"

The addressed elder however refused to see reason. "That doesn't count for anything! He is your father; he was going easy on you! I'm here to show everyone that you haven't changed at all, you're still that pathetic little wallflower they know you for, and I'll prove that I am stronger and deserve to be the leader of our clan! I'll put everyone in their rightful place with the Caged Bird Seal so no-one will be able to question me! That is how a clan should be ruled, not with sympathy and sacrifice from the leader!"

Then he was charging at her, not giving her time to shove the idiocy of his viewpoint right under his nose with her words of reason. Naruto immediately stepped in front of her, but she whipped around him, slightly roughly pushing him aside.

"Sorry, but I'm the head of my clan now Naruto, I must take responsibility by making sure my subordinates know their place, with my own strength" she said firmly, rooting him in place as he watched her effortlessly knock aside the elders first strike, then pivot out of the way.

Hekuma's charge having suddenly met minimal resistance, the honored elder ended up pitching face first into the dirt. Several gathered onlookers cracked up at this, bending over in mirth as they watched the arrogant old man getting his ass handed to him by the girl. Naruto quickly went over and shushed them, then went back to observing the developing fight.

Hinata was attempting to talk to the man as she easily bent and swayed around his attacks, or simply knocked his blow aside. His rage filled strikes were predictable, so outmaneuvering them was a piece of cake for her superior flexibility. Because his rage was blocking out his reason, the normal 'cool' attitude the Hyuuga used to perform the gentle fist arts was ruined, and so his form suffered.

The elder finally realized Hinata wasn't striking back, just toying with him, allowing him to hurt himself by letting him fall over when he unbalanced himself. Even more enraged, he clasped his hands together in an all too familiar hand sign.

"Hah! You can't resist this!" he shouted in triumph.

Hinata flinched as the pain pushed into her head, but the elder was wrong, she could resist it, and she sprinted towards him. He had gone far enough; he wasn't listening to her so she had to end this now.

She stumbled once in her charge as he panicked and increased the threshold, but before she could even get there after recovering from her small mishap, Naruto was behind him with a kunai pushed roughly up against his throat.

"Play nice" he whispered into his ear, sarcasm soaking through his menacing voice. He then reversed the knife and whacked the hilt into the old mans temple. The now limp elder sagged in unconsciousness, but Naruto kept him upright in his grip.

"This man belongs in prison" he said in disgust as Hinata now calmly walked up to them, rubbing the blood from her nose that was induced by the seal, as if nothing ever happened.

Hinata nodded her head in agreement. "_He_ should be the one with the Caged Bird seal, he needs controlling, but no-one should have to live under the seal, no matter how corrupt they are. We have to hand him over to the ANBU, I'm sure they'll be on the scene soon enough, with this crowd gathered" she said coolly, the new Hyuuga head surveying the crowd of civilians. The adrenaline still pumping through her veins momentarily dispelling her shyness that would have normally set in at being the centre of so many peoples attention.

As if on queue, two ANBU who had been in the immediate vicinity dropped from the rooftops, landing in a low crouch before the two clan heads. "Hyuuga-sama, Namikaze-sama, what happened here?" the one wearing a bird mask asked.

'_Namikaze? That's right, the ninja population probably already knows my heritage by now if Tsunade announced to them that I would be acting as the Namikaze clan head and going to meetings with Hinata_' Naruto thought as Hinata talked to the ANBU.

A short explanation later, the bird masked man nodded to his comrade who then took the prone body off Naruto. The two then gave perfunctory short bows and disappeared in streaks as they leapt off to complete their new mission.

"N,Naruto-kun, I need to go somewhere" Hinata said when the commotion had died down, her adrenaline banished with it, and replaced by her usual stutterbug.

"I know" Naruto said simply, and Hinata looked at him in shock. "But I'm coming with you this time Hinata. There's nothing you can do to stop me, short of tying me to my bed" he said with determination. '_Though I wouldn't mind if she did that tonight_' he thought with a slight blush. Even as this ran through his head he was trying to banish his pervy side.

Hinata saw the determination in his eyes, and smiled. "K" she said simply, knowing he was the same as her, once he had set his mind; there was no point in arguing. "You're the best boyfriend ever" she added and hugged him, looking up into his twinkling blue eyes. He grinned and leaned down to meet her lips in a sweet kiss.

"Naaaaaaawwwwww" was heard around them and Hinata instantly turned red, realizing that quite a few people were still watching. She pulled back in surprise and embarassment, then hid her face in Naruto's shirt as her ears burned.

"Um, lets go Naruto-kun" she quickly mumbled into his chest, and they took to the roofs. Her red face died down to a light blush as they got away from the crowd, the cool wind caressing her hot cheeks.

Together, they headed towards the Hyuuga compound, and Hinata braced herself for what she knew she had to do.

.

"Feel you when I'm restless  
Feel you when I cannot cope  
You're my addiction, my prescription, my antidote  
You kill the poison  
Ease the suffering  
Calm the rage when I'm afraid  
To feel again"

.

Hiashi's eyebrow twitched as he read the piece of paper in his hand. It was a bill from Ichiraku Ramen, to the Hyuuga clan.

'_5,000 Ryo on ramen!_' He put the paper down and shook his head in exasperation. "I'm too old for this" he said in despair and walked out of the office, deciding to go back to bed.

After all, he wasn't clan leader anymore, so why did he have to sort that stuff out. _She_ could talk to it about the treasury managers when she got back. She had been the one to buy it after all. '_Hmmph, maybe that will teach her to have some restraint with that boyfriend of hers_' he thought with a smirk, knowing the ramen loving blonde would have had to had some part in such a large bill.

.

"Hinata-sama."

Branch and Main house members alike bowed in respect in the wake of their leader as Hinata marched determinedly through the halls of her clan's compound. She was searching for her father, the previous head, who had a lot more experience in these matters than her.

She eventually found him in his room, enjoying his retirement by simply lying in bed reading a book. Both teens' eyebrows twitched when they saw the orange cover of Icha Icha Paradise.

Hiashi looked surprised to see them suddenly in his room, then quickly realized what he was reading and hid it under the covers. "Uh, Hinata-sama, Naruto-san, what brings you here?" he said rapidly, sweating slightly under there disapproving glares.

"Dad" Hinata said, pointedly ignoring the fact that he had been just reading what she thought of as porn on paper. "We ran into elder Hekumo outside Naruto-kun's house. H,he didn't think I was fit to lead our clan and so challenged my authority. I'd like to call a meeting with the clan to determine who else has his point of view, a,and deal with it now before it can escalate even further. I,I'd rather not have a coup-de-ta the second day of my appointment."

Hiashi stared at his daughter in amazement, the authority emanating off her rivaling her embarrassment. He slowly rose from the bed. "Yes, that's great reasoning Hinata-sama, you are dealing with this excellently. I take it previous elder Hikuma was defeated since he is not here in your place demanding I be sealed, which I am grateful to you for. I will call the meeting immediately." He finished his speech and attempted to leave the room, but Hinata's soft voice quickly stopped him.

"D,Dad, I am still your daughter, not just the clan head, c,could you please just call me Hinata" she said sadly, she hated the new formalities that distanced her from everyone. It went straight to her heart coming from her own father. Neji and Ko having always said it was bad enough.

Hiashi smiled warmly. "Of course, my daughter, Hinata" he said cheerily and gave her a fatherly hug she hadn't felt in years, then exited the room.

Hinata was left shocked still, but with a warm fuzzy feeling enveloping her. Even if it was a fleeting moment, it had shown her dad was truly back to stay.

.

Hinata stood upon the dais she had yesterday, again before her entire clan; minus one unfortunate elder. But this time, she had Naruto up there with her. '_I'm not nervous at all_' she thought sarcastically, gazing out over the sea of heads.

Hinata coughed nervously to try and gain some attention. Instantly, all heads turned to her like a single entity. She froze as she felt the pressure turn up a few notches. Well, burst over the scale really…

Naruto noticed her severe stage fright and squeezed her hand reassuringly. She took in his confidence, felt it flowing into her body, and went on that. Now was not the time for her nerves to show, she needed to be seen as a strong leader that ruled with an iron fist over any rebellions, and save her loving heart for her loyalists. Yes, it was going to be difficult, but she _would _prevail. This was for the clan.

She took a deep breath and began, appearing to be a brewing thunderhead before her clan. She went straight to the point.

"Do any of you question my leadership!" she thundered, the strength and volume of her own voice surprising herself as much as the clan. When stony silence hit her in return she forged ahead. "One former elder named Hekumo Hyuuga did. He challenged me and attacked me in the street to try to win the chair off me. Even though he used the seal, he did not prevail. He is now suffering for his actions, lying in an ANBU jail cell where he will most likely spend the majority of the remainder of his life. There will be no sympathy for traitors in this clan. _Is that understood!_"

A sea of solemnly nodding heads greeted her this time around. Hinata smiled lightly, dispelling her menacing façade. "Good" she said in her normal sweet tones. "To reward most of you, the loyal branch members, I have decided to remove the Caged Bird Seal from use, and have those of you who currently wear them dissolved."

This created an uproar between the few main house members left in the clan who still clung to the old ways, and the raucous cries of joy from the branch house. Hinata quickly silenced the arguments.

"I understand this is risking the secrets of the Byakugan, but we will no longer be a clan that makes up excuses to enslave our own members by jealously guarding our kekkei genkai. We will all be equals. To protect the Byakugan in the event of death, I have placed an enquiry with the Hokage to ask the seal masters of our village to research about a small tattoo to go on the temple that will quickly fade into the skin, so no one will have marks they need to cover up. In the event of death this seal will lock the Byakugan. This will clear up any feasible arguments anyone has, but it will not have any controlling purposes whatsoever. Everyone will get one, even me. There will be no arguments, my decision is final. If anyone wishes to reconsider their view of me as leader, please speak now."

She waited for a few moments, coldly looking over the heads. Inside, she was dying. "Branch members; please come to me tomorrow afternoon about removing your seal."

Now her voice turned really icy, worse than any Hyuuga had ever heard it. She turned a glare on the small clump of elders. "And if I hear about anything, even rumors, about you trying to get in some 'last minute' discipline, Hikumo's fate will seem kind to you."

Her voice magically reversed, lightening up again. "Also, Hanabi, could you please see me in an hour in my office? Thanks you everyone. That will be all, you may leave."

She sighed in relief as the attention turned off her and everyone made for the doors. Naruto turned to her in awe, his face radiating pride.

"What have you done with Hinata!" he accused in amazement. Hinata closed her eyes and sank into him, just thankful it was over. Naruto continued as he held her up. "That. Was. Awesome" he told her point blank as they finally stepped off the dais into the milling throng of leaving Hyuuga.

They quickly headed for a side door where Hiashi waited. Hinata finally spoke up again. "That was confidence I really didn't feel. Thank you for being there with me Naruto-kun" she said before they reached her dad.

He grinned. "Heh, no problem Hinata-chan, I just hope I'm never on the receiving end of that. Oh, by the way, why did you want Hanabi to meet you in an hour, did you want to stay here all that time?" he asked innocently.

Hinata sighed in resignation. "Yes, there is something else I need to get done right away." She slowly lifted a shaky finger to her forehead, where the seal lurked underneath her fringe. Understanding dawned on Naruto before she even spoke. "The, the head of the clan cannot be sealed, even if she can resist it; she is still open to manipulation. I need this off me as soon as possible, and now is as good a time as ever."

"What!" Naruto yelled. "But this is our day off; you don't have to undergo anything like _that_ today!"

Hinata turned to him and stopped walking, giving a shaky sigh. "N,Naruto-kun, p,please go home. I,I don't want you to be there when they do this, I don't want you to see me like that. I,It would haunt you" she said in concern.

Naruto shook his head vigorously. "No way. Hell no. No matter what's happening I'm not leaving your side" he said confidently.

"Naruto!" Hinata yelled in even more concern. "You don't understand what's going to happen. I'll be hurt. Bad. And I don't want you to see that."

He clamped his hand over her own, and looked into her eyes. "I'm not letting this go" he said firmly, gently shaking her hand.

"Naruto…" Hinata said softly, then hugged him and buried her sobbing face in his chest, breaking down into him. "Thank you"

.

The clan heads bone chilling scream reverberated through the compound, making both families shudder. It was déjà vu of when Hiashi had first used the seal on his daughter, but this time, it was for good. Hinata's seal was being dragged off her.

Hanabi glanced sympathetically to the old branch member maid who was cleaning the room that she was currently occupying, knowing the lady would have to go through what Hinata was to have her seal removed. And Hinata was an exceptionally tough kunoichi, as she had proven, and she had a ridiculously high pain threshold. So for it to make her scream like that…

As if to reinforce Hanabi's admiration for the strength of her big sister, no more screams followed that first one.

.

Hinata bit down on her bottom lip, not caring about the blood that gushed over her teeth from it, and held in the scream that was working its way out of her throat. She would not scare her clan anymore!

She held Naruto's hand in a death grip, her other clenched white knuckled and pressed hard into her thigh. Blood too leaked between her fingers from where her long nails dug into the flesh of her hand.

She was sitting in a simple wooden chair in the centre of a dark room; the Hyuuga sealing chambers. Naruto was holding her hands, and an unknown elder was working over her forehead. She had lowered all her defenses to him in order for him to do this, so she knew her life was in his hands. If he was malicious like Hikumo, he could kill her in an instant. But she needed to trust her clan, and she did that now. It didn't go unnoticed by the elder either, and so he tried all the harder to hasten the process so she would be out of this misery as soon as possible.

Hinata felt another scream building, so she squeezed her eyes shut against it, a low, long moan escaping her throat instead. She started rocking back and forth in the chair as the pain racked her body, but a hand quickly wrapped around her waist to keep her in place. Naruto's hand. The one that wasn't already stolen by her death grip.

She took his strength like she had his confidence earlier, and used it to persevere against the pain.

Drops of blood began leaking from her nose and ears, but even as this announced the peak of her ordeal, the pain began to slowly fade just as it had slowly built. It created small ebbs and flows in the agony throughout her body, the gaps in which she could piece her mind back together to find a semblance of reality.

Her breathing evened again until she was taking deep, calming breaths, and finally reopened her eyes. She found herself gazing into Naruto's own concerned blue ones.

He was smiling.

He had watched in silent awe as the seal slowly faded away, not leaving a single mark on her now again flawless forehead. It made the beauty of her face now almost painfully perfect to Naruto. In a good way of course.

The elder bowed and Hinata squeaked out a polite "Thank you", all she could manage in her weariness, but full of gratitude. He took his leave, walking out of the room to leave the relieved couple in peaceful solitude.

The fatigue of the aftermath of the ordeal hit Hinata and she sagged sideways in her chair, leaning into Naruto's comfortably warm body.

"That cannot be done to our whole clan" she whispered despairingly, still drinking in Naruto's familiar scent. "We'll have to work on it" she decided with a small smile, just wearily ecstatic that it was over for her.

But it was an order to give another day; right now all she wanted was to spend time with Naruto. She slowly reached up and touched her forehead under her fringe. Her smile lit up the darkness of the room like a beacon when she felt no seal engraved there.

She then practically leapt onto Naruto, wrapping her arms and legs around him with new found energy and kissed him passionately. Naruto grinned as she swarmed over his mouth, and then slowly broke. Lifting his chin up, he kissed her forehead lightly.

"I'm glad you're back to normal" he said with a soft smile and again met her lips, closing his eyes in bliss in sync with hers.

.

After their small make out session the couple left the room to find several uncomfortable looking Hyuuga outside. Hinata blushed, knowing why they were like that. She cleared her throat awkwardly to get a semblance of dignity back.

"Um, thank you for that elders, however we need to work on it so it can be more suitable for all branch members, the elderly to the children. Please look into it more. I want to see progress by the end of the week, I will tell the branch families tomorrow that they may have to wait a little longer."

The elders nodded and hurried back into the now _un_sealing room, talking among themselves with hands tucked into the opposite sleeves of their robes in typical old people fashion.

Now Hinata turned to a branch member who was also waiting, acting as a messenger for her. "Could you please inform Hanabi that I'll meet her in my office in five minutes?" she asked kindly.

"Yes Ma'am!" came the nervously shouted reply, and the young messenger dashed off down the hall.

.

Now they were alone again. Naruto put his arms on her shoulders and kissed her again, pushing her gently up against the wall, his arms on either side of her lightly pinning her to it. When he pulled back, she hesitantly did the same, though with a clear look she wanted more.

He chuckled lightly, but still asked the question that had been bugging him. "So why did you want to go see Hanabi?" he queried.

Hinata smiled. "Did you forget we're still on our day off? I thought we could have dinner together tonight, and I was going to ask Hanabi if she could help me pick out a dress."

She couldn't help but smirk at his look of surprise. "Oh yea! Crap! I'll go sort out dinner right now and get some clothes!" he shouted, then was already sprinting off down the corridor. "Meet me at my house in an hour!" he called over his shoulder and disappeared around the corner of the corridor.

Hinata giggled lightly, and waited for it. It took all but a minute before she heard a loud shout, presumably from Naruto finding out that he was going the wrong way from a passing Hyuuga. He came running back by her, Hinata still waiting in the same position. She waved prettily with a smug smile as he rushed past, Naruto planting a chaste peck on her cheek as he did.

She then walked up the hallway he had gone down first; to her office where she would see her sister again, and finally get back her relaxing day with her boyfriend.

.

"How can I tell you just all that you are

What you do to me."

.

"Hey nee-san" Hanabi said nonchalantly as she came into the office. Hinata smiled at her little sister's foregoing of all formalities. She was glad to find nothing had changed between them despite her new rank.

They actually had a fairly good relationship despite their opposite upbringings, so it was pleasant in the rare occasions they actually got to spend time not training with each other. "Hi Hanabi-imouto" Hinata replied brightly.

Hanabi tilted her head inquisitively. "So what is it you wanted sis?" she asked, straight to the point as usual. She was a bit of an enigma like that.

"Um, I was wondering if you, well, wanted to help me pick out a dress for my dinner date tonight with Naruto-kun" she said embarrassedly. Her friend Ino never failed to mention what she thought was Hinata's blasphemous fashion style, covering up her assets like she did, so Hinata had decided to ask her little sister for advice. She didn't dare ask Ino, she would probably end up attending dinner in her underwear, but her sister was pretty young, so she hopefully wouldn't pick something _that_ bad.

She tilted her head and gave a closed eyed smile to Hanabi's questioning look. "Apparently I have no fashion sense whatsoever" she admitted, absently thumbing the hem of her bulky lavender jacket.

Hanabi grinned. "Nee-san, your style suits you fine! You have plenty enough curves to make it sexy! But, if it's for _Naruto-kun_ you're going out with tonight, I think we'll have to blow his mind!"

Hinata fretted about her little sister's smirk and the devious glint in her eye, but she was committed now, so she had to go through with it. Hanabi came around the desk and grabbed Hinata's twiddling hand. "C'mon sis!" she said enthusiastically and dragged the bigger girl out of the office.

.

"Troublesome" Skikamaru muttered when he opened his door to see Naruto's beaming face. "What?" he said when no answer was immediately forthcoming.

Suddenly he found himself being dragged out of his house and down the road towards the shopping district. Before the lazy shinobi could complain anymore, Naruto was chatting amiably.

"Shikamaru, you've gotta help me pick up a suit for tonight! Pleeeaaaasssseee, its with Hina-chan, we're gonna go to this really fancy restaurant then go dancing then hopefully go back to my apartment and-" he stopped himself when he realized he was about to go into slightly too much detail for his friend's comfort.

Shikamaru sighed. "If it's as fancy as you seem to think it is, you'll need more than a suit. A tux will do though" he said, and then smirked. "But if you're hoping to get laid later, it's going to be an _expensive_ tux."

Naruto blushed slightly, then shook an angry fist on Shikamaru. "I'm not a perve like that Shikamaru! I just meant kissing and stuff!"

Several passers-by gave the duo strange looks at Naruto's loud outburst. Shikamaru stuffed his hands in his pockets, but his smirk only broadened. "Sure" he said. His voice was the embodiment of sarcasm.

Naruto narrowed his eyes in frustration, but decided to drop it when he saw the store they had suddenly stopped at. "In there?" he asked his friend, who gave him a twitch of a nod, to lazy even to do the full head movement.

Naruto rushed inside while Shikamaru trudged in at a more regular pace, and couldn't help but chuckle when Naruto looked at the first tuxedo he found, saw the price tag, and almost had a heart attack.

Even more passers-by looked in from outside hearing his loud "WHAAAAAAT!" that reverberated over the village.

.

Hinata soon found herself in one of Konoha's fanciest dress shops. Across the road was a formal kimono shop, and she had started to head there when Hanabi had scolded her.

"Kimono's are for formal occasions Hinata, you need something more wild for tonight!" she'd admonished, and so they had ended up here. Hinata felt like she was the little sister being taught the art of fashion and seduction. Well, she pretty much was, in a kid's kind of way.

Hanabi's face lit up in awe as they entered the shop, with Hinata just looking more and more worried as she saw the ever more revealing dresses. She was then submitted to being yanked around the shop as Hanabi squealed in delight at every second dress and shoved it at her big sister to hold, before stealing Hinata's free hand again to drag her to the next stand of dresses.

They eventually wound up in front of the changing rooms, Hinata peeping out from a pile of dresses cradled in her arms. "Umm, Hanabi, don't you think this might be a little… over excessive" she asked awkwardly, her meek voice muffled by the dress that was currently stuffed in her face.

"Nonsense!" Hanabi said, batting her hand in the air. "You've gotta try them all if we wanna get you the best dress for tonight!"

Hinata sighed in exasperation. '_Will I even get there tonight?_' she thought. Maybe she _should_ have gone to Ino, this was turning out to be almost as bad as her private shopping trip with the blonde diva when they were still genin. She had been dragged around the mall literally all day until they wound up three hours late for the event they had been shopping for, though with huge additions to their wardrobes and huge losses to their respective clan's coffers.

Hinata now tried dress after dress, only to get a solid shake of the head from Hanabi. She finally slipped on a pretty looking lavender one. While it was way to revealing for her comfort line, she saw herself in the mirror and had to admit it looked good.

Rows of black lace marched up the front to where a tight cup held in half of her breasts, where it then stopped, making them feel like they were bulging out the top. Hinata face turned bright red when she saw this, but she reasoned… Naruto would like it. The lavender bodice-like top half was connected to a figure hugging thigh length skirt. It was _very _short.

She nervously opened the door to confront an extremely judging looking Hanabi. Hinata twiddled her fingers together up by her face in her regular nervous habit as Hanabi surveyed her like a sculpture in the art show.

Finally, her face lit up in joy. "I think I'm in love" she squealed. "It's a winner, you're getting this one! Naruto's gonna die when he see's you in this!"

Hanabi unceremoniously kicked the other pile of dresses away and again stood before Hinata, hands on hips with an approving smile and nodding her head. Hinata was still red. She absently tried to pull the breast cups up to cover more.

"Umm, I,Is there a slightly bigger size?" she asked meekly. Hanabi barked a laugh and snagged her sister fidgeting hand. "Don't worry about it nee-san, Naruto will just _love_ it, trust me."

After the teller punched in the digits for the astronomical price of the dress, Hinata signed the bill to the Hyuuga estate. Outside the store, still wearing the dress, with her normal clothes in a plastic bag, Hinata wore a permanent blush as the sisters walked through the village towards Naruto's apartment block.

"Th,they're looking at me" Hinata whispered embarrassedly out of the corner of her mouth to her sister.

Who smirked. "Of course they are, they all want to see how beautiful the new Hyuuga head is!" she exclaimed.

Hinata saw various men turn their heads away quickly as her gaze wandered over them, before finally settling back on her little sister. "And how do you feel about that sis? Y'know, me being, well, the leader of the Hyuuga Clan instead of you."

Hanabi looked up at Hinata's concerned features, and smiled broadly. "I'm actually really happy to have all the stress and responsibility off my chest. I mean, I'm still way too young for that kind of stuff. It was all father wanted me for, I felt sad he didn't see me as his daughter, but as a future leader. Now, he actually smiles at me. Dad. Smiling!"

Hinata giggled alongside her sister at this part and agreed with an astonished "I know!"

Hanabi continued. "And I'm really happy for you sis! They finally saw how strong you really are now, instead of being blind behind their stereotype of you. You really showed it to them. I think you deserved it a lot more than me, Hiashi's pampered daughter. I'm glad you got it in the end. Now I'm free to do whatever I want!"

Hinata smiled at her little sisters heartfelt reassurance. "Thanks Hanabi" she said softly, and they spent the remainder of the short walk in comfortable silence.

.

"Here we are" Hinata announced as they came up to the block of apartments where Naruto lived. She handed her bag with her normal clothes to her sister. "Well, wish me luck" she said was a nervous chuckle. Hanabi hugged her.

"Good luck sis, even if you don't need it with that dress on!"she said cheekily then ran off down the street, leaving Hinata to her fate.

She slowly made her way up the now familiar route through the building to Naruto's door. Outside it, she again absently pulled her dress up by the cups, and then raised her fist and gently knocked on the door.

.

Naruto opened his door to reveal the most beautiful girl in the world on his doorstep; his girlfriend. Wearing a _very _revealing dress. He could clearly see the cleavage of her massive curves that he had only ever before felt pressed against him or seen completely covered up in not so revealing clothes. But in this dress, it was all up for show.

Of course, she had a fluoro pink face, but his gaze was helplessly roving up and down her body.

Instant nosebleed.

Naruto was ejected back into his room by the force of the weight of blood, mumbling incoherent nothings about Hinata on the way down.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata yelped in concern and rushed over to the poor guy. She knelt down beside him, not knowing what to do, her hands hovering uncertainly over him. She leant down further and decided on shaking him. Naruto finally gained some sense of normality due to her persistent shaking.

His vision coming sharp again, he glanced up at the face of his girlfriend and smiled. But he couldn't help also seeing the items below bouncing around from her light shaking. They were only inches from his face due to their positions. For once, it was Naruto who fainted.

.

"You're better than drugs

Your love is like wine

Feel you comin' on so fast

Feel you comin' on to get me high.

You're better than drugs

Addicted for life

Feel you comin' on so fast

Feel you comin' on to get me high."

.

Hinata only just noticed he was in a tux when she dragged his limp body over to the couch and laid him own on it. She blushed at how handsome he was. While blood trailed down his face from his nose, amazingly none had got on either of their outfits.

She hustled into the bathroom and got a hand towel from the drawer, soaked it in water, wrung it out to stop it dripping, then returned to her boyfriend's side to gently wipe the blood from his face.

She looked lovingly upon his unconscious features and folded the flannel carefully, then laid it over his bare forehead. She wondered how many times he had done this for her during her frequent fainting spells.

Finally, Naruto responded to Hinata's persistent fingers combing his hair back as she continued to drink in his familiar features. He groggily opened his eyes to see her sitting on the armrest of the couch above him.

He smiled at her, but groaned soon after as a massive headache set in due to blood loss. "Ugh. Water" he croaked. It was just like a hangover.

"K" Hinata said brightly and hopped up to fetch him the glass of water she had prepared that was sitting on the table, glad he was finally awake after twenty minutes of her sitting there gazing at him. Finally, their dinner date could get underway.

.

"Wow. T,this place is amazing" Hinata said in awe as she took in the entrance to the fanciest restaurant in Konoha. "Naruto-kun, h,how did you afford this?" she queried.

He had insisted on footing the entire bill, even though she was now filthy rich, he just wanted to do the gesture. And she thought it was a very sweet gesture indeed. One that she really appreciated, being treated like a normal girl instead of the clan head she now was. But Naruto had loved her before that, and she was glad he still loved her that way, not for being important and wealthy. With Naruto, she could just leave all that behind.

A waiter in a black and white tuxedo greeted them as they entered hand in hand, and led them to a seat. Hinata smiled to Naruto over the table as the waiter quickly went to fetch some water just in case they wanted some.

"That reminds me" she said. "You look very handsome in that tuxedo." She blushed a bit as she said it, but she was growing a lot more confident around him, so she was proud she had actually had the nerve to compliment him. It looked like he had put a lot of effort into his appearance for this date for her.

He grinned in response. "And you. You're absolutely stunning! Beautiful!" he said in return, the disbelief and amazement at her stunningly gorgeous look evident in his voice.

She blushed harder at his obvious adoration. "Th,thank you" she squeaked out, stumbling on her words as she always did when he complimented her. But this time, before he could continue his barrage she was saved by the waiter placing a jug of water on the table between them along with two matching crystal glasses.

He performed a small bow and asked politely "Now sir, ma'm, what could I get you?" A notepad had already materialized in his hand.

"Oh" they dumbly said together in unison. Naruto scratched the back of his head in embarrassment while Hinata just blushed harder.

"Um, sorry, we haven't chosen yet, can we have a bit more time?" he said sheepishly.

The waiter again bowed. "Of course sir" he said. "Ma'm" he nodded to Hinata, then sort of sidled off to the side and away to another table. The couple picked up their previously neglected menus off the table and began reading over the contents in slightly awkward silence.

"Um, what are you going to get Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked in an attempt to start up a conversation again, having just quickly decided to go with the soup of the day and a side salad.

Naruto had an intense look on his face as he scanned the list from top to bottom over and over again. "Wh,what it this?" he managed to get out in disbelief, then dropped the menu and looked at Hinata, aghast. "They don't have ramen!" he whined.

Hinata couldn't help but giggle at his antics. "Of course not silly, ramen is a takeaway food, they won't have it at a restaurant like this." She waved her hand around, gesturing to the grandiose of their surroundings. Naruto groaned and put his head in arms on the table in depression.

"Naruto…" Hinata said in exasperation. She picked up her menu again and scanned over it quickly. Leaning over the table towards him, she shoved the menu in his face and pointed to a meal. "How about this one Naruto-kun? It had some flash noodles in it, and some pork, so it will be kind of like miso pork ramen."

Naruto looked up in hope, but instead of seeing the menu, he saw what was behind it. Hinata's prodigious bust squashed against the table she was leaning over, almost bursting out the top of her dress.

That instantly pushed him back into an upright sitting position in his seat with blood spilling from his nose , eyes swirly, muttering incomprehensible nothings about Hinata's curves.

Said Hinata sweat dropped, not knowing what was causing him to be like that. She thought it was the no ramen thing.

The waiter came over with an equally awkward look on his face as he took in Naruto. He didn't even bother to ask this time, he just turned to walk away, but Hinata quickly snagged his arm.

He turned around with a questioning look. "Um, we're ready to order now" she said quietly.

The notebook again popped into his hand. His speed at producing it was making Hinata start to think he was a ninja! "May I take your order then?" he said grandly.

Hinata smiled and turned back to her menu. "Yes, I'll have the Soup of the Day with a Caeser side salad, and Naruto-kun there will have the Pork Noodle dish thanks."

She turned back to see him scribbling furiously in his little book. "And to drink?" he asked, his pen paused, looking back up. Only it wasn't as far up as Hinata expected. He was looking somewhere just below her face. Her eyes narrowed and she blushed heavily when she realized just what he was staring at.

She quickly picked the menu back up so that it obstructed his view and she again read the list for drinks, this time with a red face. "Uh, I guess just some orange juice would be nice thanks" she said quietly.

The waiter again nodded and turned his head back to his book, much to Hinata's relief. He then plucked the menu out of her hand, making her "Eep" in surprise and giving himself another good look as he bent to get the other menu off the table in front of Naruto. Then, thankfully, he was gone.

Hinata looked down at herself as her face faded back to its normal porcelain cream color. She glanced at the slowly recuperating Naruto. Had she done that? When she realized that yes, she had, in this dress she had that effect on males, she had one thought; other than the waiter being a pervert. '_Hanabi, I'm going to kill you._'

.

When Naruto sat back up off the backrest he had been comaed onto for the past few minutes, Hinata leant an inch towards him, careful not to strain anything so she wouldn't send the poor guy back to oblivion.

"Are you alright Naruto-kun?" she asked sweetly.

"Uh, yea. Yea" he muttered, then poured himself a glass of water. He was now feeling positively woozy due to all the blood he had lost tonight. "Ugh, sorry about that" he said as he got back to normal.

"N,No, I'm sorry, that was my fault Naruto-kun. It seems this dress" she blushed heavily at saying this, though indicated the dress. "Is a bit r,revealing. I should be m,more careful how I move in it."

Naruto nodded his head solemnly. Not that he didn't love her in that super sexy dress, but it was dangerous to his health! He didn't really want to spend the rest of the night succumbing to nosebleeds every time he caught a glimpse of her cleavage in any provocative manner. Unintentional or not. He'd be out of it for the whole _bloody_ date!

"So yea, I think I'll get that ramen thing you were saying" Naruto said, reaching for the now non-existent menu. When he realized this he looked to her questioningly.

She gave him a closed eyed smile. "I'm glad you wanted that one because the waiter came back so I ordered it for you."

"Oh" Naruto said, then grinned. "Thanks Hinata-chan!" he gushed.

She blushed. She still wasn't used to that name, especially the way he said it so freely.

"So, um, what do we talk about now?" he asked awkwardly. He had been about to start up a conversation by asking her what she did for a living but… ninja. Duh. "Oh! Oh, I got it!" he insisted before any words could even begin to formulate in her partially opened mouth. Which immediately clamped back shut.

He leant over the table, resting his elbows on it, taking a position like he was about to ask her some big secret. "So, how did you're Chunin Exam go? Tell me all about it, I wanna hear all about how the great Hinata Hyuuga kicked all their butts and made chunin!"

It was something he had been secretly envious of to all his old classmates, but none of them had even got round to telling him about their exams.

Hinata blushed, being put in the spotlight like that. "Oh, um, it wasn't really that very amazing" she said modestly, looking sideways at the table and brushing his question off. She really wasn't the kind of girl to brag about her skills or tell tales of her exploits.

"Nah! It would have been amazing Hinata! You would have kicked their asses!" Naruto shouted out obnoxiously. He couldn't comprehend Hinata's embarrassment in telling stories about herself as he did it all the time.

Hinata blushed more under his torrent of praise and brought her hands up from her lap so that her index fingers began tapping each other up by her face. Naruto for once recognized her cute nervous habit and leant back with a grin.

Just before he decided to praise her even more just to see that cute blush on her face again, she was saved by the waiter's miraculous timing with two meals being plunked down before them.

Naruto gawked, a very predictable reaction. "This is awesome Hinata! It looks just like fancy ramen!" he exclaimed over the dish of steaming noodles and pork before him.

Hinata smiled and looked down to her own dish of pumpkin soup, with the salad in a small side bowl. It also looked really appetizing, but Naruto seemed to have other ideas about her meal. He was now looking at it like it was some kind of mini Bijuu about to pounce up at her.

He pointed a shaky finger at the leafy green things in her salad. "H,How can you eat that poison?" he said with an over exaggerated 'horrified' look. At least, she thought he was over exaggerating it.

She giggled at his antics. "Naruto-kun, its just salad" she explained, brushing off his disbelief at how she could eat such a thing. It didn't faze him.

"Just salad! Are you kidding me! Its, its, s,salad!" Apparently, salad was blasphemy for the all-ramen eating Naruto.

Hinata giggled again at Naruto's set in stone food habits, looking around with a blush when she noticed many annoyed faces glaring back at them from various tables within the room.

"Naruto-kun, can you please keep it down" she whispered, but a mischievous smile was still on her face. "Tell you what" she said, a subtle hint in her voice. "If I kiss you, will you have a piece of salad? Just to give it a try?"

Naruto sat back with a thoughtful look on his face. Then, that look turned sly. "Why would I agree to that when I could kiss you anytime I want?" he said equally as mischievously as Hinata.

'_Shoot_' Hinata thought in mock annoyance, Naruto having called her bluff.

He then backed up his statement by all but leaping over the table to kiss her. She squealed in mock fright and blocked his pursuing lips by stuffing a finger full of salad in his mouth.

He stopped abruptly and his eyes widened in surprise. She slipped her fingers out of his mouth, leaving the salad there, and slowly moved his jaw up and down until he was chewing by himself. He swallowed with a grimace.

"Though your fingers tasted scrumptious, I've got to say that green thing has got to be the worst thing I've ever eaten" he said, his face scrunching up in distaste. Hinata giggled again.

That was when she noticed Naruto was crouched atop the table, a very pissed off looking waiter standing to the side of him. "Out!" was all he need to say for the young couple to turn tail and beeline it straight for the door, Naruto leaving a few notes in his wake, no where near enough to foot the bill, just a cheeky little tip for the waiter.

.

"Feel your every heartbeat  
Feel you on these empty nights  
You're the strength of my life."

.

"Huh! You two again? What's with you guys always showing up so late?" Ayame said as Naruto and Hinata trudged into the shop, Naruto sheepishly scratching the back of his head. Then she noticed their attire. "Wow! All dressed up too! What's the special occasion?"

Naruto then commenced to tell the ramen helper about their plans for a fancy dinner and about having been kicked out. "Narutoooo." She shook an angry fist at him, and he couldn't help but quail from the likeliness of Sakura.

Ayame turned and gave Hinata a bright smile, eyes still glinting with the promise of future pain for Naruto, and said "Even if that knucklehead ruined your meal, I'll make sure you get a good one here!"

She then started to bustle around the open kitchen, presumably getting all the ingredients together. "Miso Pork right?" she asked over her shoulder.

"Yes please!" the couple chorused, Hinata not caring about diet ramen on a day like today. She had had so much that morning; she didn't think one more bowl would do her much more damage. That brought a thought to her head, how could they even stomach the thought of ramen after the contest that morning. Well, a lot had happened that day.

When the two hot steaming bowls were set on the bench before them and Ayame went out back to leave them in peace, "Itadakimasu" could be heard with the breaking of chop sticks before the teens dug in.

In a pause in the meal, Hinata turned towards Naruto. "So, um, Naruto-kun, what did you get up to in that big training trip you left for? You came back very strong; you must have had some great adventures."

Naruto grinned and stopped slurping down his ramen, thinking of all the awesome stuff he did. "Yea, I-" he started, but then the most horrific thing he did came to mind.

The smile slipped from his grasp. '_I almost killed my own sensei_' he thought, but put on a fake smile for Hinata. "Sorry Hina-chan, I just don't really feel like talking about it right now, it was a really hard time away from all my friends, and you."

Hinata blushed at the last part, but was not to be distracted as was his obvious intention. She had seen straight through his fake smile, seen his demeanor change for that split second. Still, she reasoned such serious matters as what it seemed were to be for another day.

She smiled. "That ok Naruto-kun, if you don't want to I won't press you."

He grinned. "You're the best Hinata-chan" he said and hugged her warmly, but they couldn't avoid slipping into a slightly uncomfortable silence for the remainder of the meal, the secret hanging between them like a curse.

When they were done, Ayame magically appeared at the desk. Had she been spying? "Hyuuga clan right?" Ayame said, beginning to write out a bill. Hinata started to agree but Naruto cut her off.

"Na, I got this one" he said and pulled out Gama-chan, handing her a few notes.

"That was very sweet Naruto-kun" Hinata said as they exited the shop. He grinned and scratched the back of his head in modesty. "No problem" he said and grabbed her hand, leading her down the street. "Now we've got one more stop for the night!"

.

Naruto grinned like an idiot as he led Hinata by the hand through some double doors into a large room. It was bright and had fancy written all over it. White marble and chandeliers glistened everywhere. A man in a tuxedo greeted them as they entered.

"You must be here for the dance" he said, indicating their dressed up attire.

"Yup!" Naruto nodded excitedly. "Naruto Uzumaki and Hinata Hyuuga here!"

The man scanned through his list on his clipboard, checking the couples names with a pen. "Please enter and enjoy the rest of your night Hyuuga-sama, Uzumaki-san."

They smiled and entered the room. If Naruto was miffed that he hadn't called him 'sama' he didn't show it, and Hinata was glad that the man had been one of the rare ones that night that hadn't gazed at her breasts. He had seen them, and then forced his gaze to stay locked on her face for the rest of their interaction. A good man doing his job well.

They noticed many couples were already dancing to the slow music filling the void. None of the pairs were familiar to them as they were mostly civilian, but that didn't matter. Soon, they were lost in each others eyes, swaying together with the slow romantic music.

Naruto obviously wasn't the best dancer, so Hinata had to take the lead, having been taught a lot of formal dancing by her clan in preparation for the political plays involved in her being a main house member.

Naruto gazed into her soft lavender eyes as she led him around the dance floor. He was trying his best not to stumble over her feet but wasn't doing very good with it, despite how much he wanted to be there, his mind was not.

Finally, she noticed that she wasn't helping him forget whatever was bugging him, and so surreptitiously led him over to a bench seat at the edge of the room.

"Naruto-kun, what's wrong?" she said, holding his hand in both of hers as he looked down into his lap.

"Hinata" he said quietly. "What you asked earlier, about what I did on my trip, it reminded me of something. Hinata, w,what do you think of, you know, w,what I am?"

His eyes would not meet hers, even when she smiled and drew him into a hug. "I _don't_ think about what you are, because you are not it, you are Naruto Uzumaki, savior of the Leaf Village" she said brightly, without a hint of doubt in her voice.

He drew back slightly, to keep her at arms length. So she didn't know how dangerous he really was, she had been out of it for most of the fight… "No, you don't understand. I,I mean, sometimes, it gets out of control. At any moment I could, I could maybe destroy this entire village. It was a miracle I didn't kill you when you were knocked out fighting Pain, and I almost released it again that night with your father. I'm dangerous to be around Hinata. W,what do you think, about that?" he mumbled, still looking down.

Hinata cupped his chin and slowly but forcefully brought his head up to look into the conviction in her eyes. "You are the savior of the Hidden Leaf Village" she said again determinedly. "You are the savior of Konoha. If it wasn't for you, we would have been destroyed by it years ago. I'm not worried at all about being around you Naruto, because I know you're strong enough to defeat it. And I'll be there for you always, so I can help you whenever you need me."

Naruto was locked into her eyes. She accepted the danger he was and still continued to love him. Love him. To be by his side, always. She wasn't just accepting him like everyone else, but was actually loving him. Despite everything he was, she was still utterly and hopelessly in love with him.

He broke into a helpless, ear splitting grin. She had to be the best girlfriend ever! He said this out loud now. "You're the best girlfriend ever!" he shouted and enveloped her in a huge bear hug, capturing her lips with his.

.

"You're better than drugs  
Your love is like wine  
Feel you comin' on so fast  
Feel you comin' to get me high  
You're better than drugs  
Addicted for life  
Feel you comin' on so fast  
Feel you comin' on to get me high."

.

After people had stopped looking at them due to Naruto's outburst, they got up and returned to the dance floor. Now the slow dancing had a new quality to Naruto that he hadn't felt before. It felt so peaceful, so loving, so right, being there cradled in Hinata's arms, and her in his, slowly swaying to the soft music. And knowing that she loved _everything_ about him. It was… perfect.

.

Hinata lay in Naruto's arms, on his old couch in his apartment. She was out of her dress and back into her good old comfortable, unrevealing clothes, that Hanabi must have brought round earlier when she realized Hinata might have need of them.

Her eyes were closed and a smile lingered on her face as her hair was slowly stroked by Naruto. She was sleeping peacefully in his arms as he lay back under her, lovingly watching her body move slowly to the even rise and falls of her breath.

Summoning a clone with a one handed seal, it went over and turned out the lights before dismissing itself.

'_Today was a good day_' Naruto thought to himself. "I love you, Hinata-chan" he whispered softly in her ear.

She subconsciously heard it, and mumbled an even softer "I love you too, Naruto-kun" in her sleep.

He smiled as his heart warmed even further, full to bursting with the love they had for each other.

He slowly closed his eyes, but Hinata's angelic face lingered in his mind, outlined by the soft caress of the moonlight coming through the window, until finally he too fell asleep.

Both ninja dreamt the night away about their day with each other and the promise hundreds more to come, spent in each others loving arms.

.

Wow. It's over. Finally. Sorry but I think I rushed the editing of the end there a bit, I just really wanted to get this out tonight. I had a really good part for that random little bit about the Kyuubi for Hinata accepting it if Naruto though she didn't know, but I realized I'd already shown in the other chapters that Hinata already knew. Well, I hope you enjoyed this. One day I may continue it with a sequel, but I doubt it. This is it for now. Well, I think it was quite an achievement, 3 songs, 3 chapters, almost 50,000 words. Hehe. I hope I addressed all the problems their relationship might have throughout this series so being optimistic their gonna live happily ever after. Yay! Well, I'm going to start typing out my main story now as well as continue to hand write the draft which is way further along, so hopefully I might be able to get the first chapter out within a month. However I'm going to take a tiny break from writing because right now my neck hurts like hell! Ok now I'm just rambling because I'm trying to get this chapter over 20,000 words. I was aiming for an overall of 50,000 but only got to like 47,000ish so but oh well. Anyway, hope you enjoyed and I am looking forward to your reviews, they're awesome! Hinata FTW out. (I can't believe I just wrote that…)


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